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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said AI could help improve cross-border payment screening, cybersecurity and routing, while raising new questions about autonomous purchases. He described agentic commerce as early-stage and said delegated shopping will require stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said artificial intelligence could help make cross-border payments more efficient and secure, while AI agents that shop and pay on consumers’ behalf will require safeguards against unintended purchases. In a speech at Sibos 2026 in Miami, Waller described agentic commerce as an early-stage development that could reshape payments if adoption grows.
Waller identified illicit-finance screening as one area where AI may improve cross-border payments. He said large language models can use context to improve sanctions screening and anti-money-laundering systems, and referred to research showing they can reduce false-positive alerts. Fewer false alarms could let analysts focus on complex, higher-risk cases and reduce friction for legitimate transactions. He said these systems would augment, rather than replace, faster traditional anomaly detection.
He also discussed the dual role of AI in cybersecurity. AI could help identify threats, manage exposure and detect software vulnerabilities, Waller said, but it may also increase the volume and sophistication of attacks. Because a connected payment system can be disrupted through a single exploited vulnerability while operators must defend a broad attack surface, he urged the industry to proceed deliberately.
For cross-border transfers, AI agents could help select payment routes and manage decisions involving cost, speed, reliability, currency conversion and liquidity, provided they receive suitable data and criteria. Waller also outlined two forms of agentic commerce: an assisted model, in which consumers search with AI but choose and pay themselves, and a delegated model, in which consumers authorize an agent to shop and pay within set limits.
Safeguards for Autonomous Purchases
The difference between assisted and delegated shopping matters because delegated agents can act without a consumer approving each transaction. Waller gave the example of an agent using a pre-funded virtual card to buy groceries based on past purchases. That arrangement could reduce routine effort, but it also makes clear why consumers and payment providers need ways to define spending limits, permitted merchants and other constraints.
Waller said consumer-to-business purchases are expected to be the first wave, with assisted uses preceding more autonomous delegation. If such services gain wider use, payment systems will need to establish how authorization works when an agent acts for a person, and how mistaken or unauthorized purchases are handled. The speech raises those issues but does not set out a specific technical or regulatory framework.
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From Fraud Tools to AI Agents
Waller placed agentic commerce within a longer history of AI use in payments. He said the sector has used machine learning to combat payment fraud and adopted large language models early for tasks such as reconciliation. The newer development, in his account, is building infrastructure that lets AI agents carry out multistep processes and transact autonomously.
At an industry roundtable hosted at the Federal Reserve earlier in the summer, participants broadly agreed that agentic commerce remains at an early stage, according to Waller. He said consumers may use general-purpose agents offered by AI firms or agents specific to merchants; personal AI assistants could also become a route to these services. His remarks were a discussion of potential uses and risks, not an announcement of a new Federal Reserve payment product or policy.
“I expect LLMs to augment, rather than replace, faster, more traditional anomaly detection methods.”
— Christopher Waller, Federal Reserve governor
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Waller did not specify common standards for consumer authorization, spending limits, dispute resolution or liability when an AI agent makes a purchase. The speech also did not detail how firms should verify that an agent is acting within a consumer’s instructions, or what protections apply when the agent makes an error.
The scale and timing of adoption remain uncertain. Waller said market participants view agentic commerce as early-stage and described wider effects as conditional on adoption scaling. He also discussed potential AI gains in screening, cybersecurity and routing, but offered no performance figures or implementation timelines in the speech.
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Industry Work on Payment Guardrails
The next step identified in Waller’s remarks is further industry development of the trust mechanisms and guardrails needed for delegated commerce. Payment providers, merchants and AI firms will need to address how an agent receives authority, what limits apply and how transactions can be reviewed or challenged. Waller’s speech did not announce a schedule or a formal process for setting those rules.
For now, the development is best understood as a set of opportunities and open questions rather than a settled change to payment systems. The pace of adoption, the reliability of AI tools in live transactions and the protections consumers will receive are all still to be established.
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Key Questions
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is the use of AI agents to help make purchases. In the delegated form described by Waller, a consumer authorizes an agent to shop and pay within instructions or limits.
How is agent-assisted shopping different?
With agent-assisted shopping, an AI agent helps with product search and discovery, but the consumer makes the purchase decisions and handles payment. Delegated shopping gives the agent authority to complete transactions.
How could AI affect cross-border payments?
Waller said AI could support screening for illicit finance, cybersecurity and payment routing. Agents may also help weigh costs, speed, reliability, currency conversion and liquidity, although these are potential uses rather than confirmed outcomes.
Are AI agents already widely making purchases?
Waller described agentic commerce as being in an early phase. He said assisted uses are expected to come before more autonomous delegated purchases; the speech did not provide adoption figures.
What protections for delegated purchases are settled?
The speech did not set out agreed rules for authorization, transaction disputes or liability. Waller said delegated commerce requires more extensive trust mechanisms and guardrails, but specific standards and timelines remain unclear.
Source: primary
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