Stripe says AI agent purchases on its Link system grew 38 times
The typical agent purchase is about $100, and Link has about 200 agents, up from about 70 in September.
Stripe says that purchases by AI agents through its Link payment system grew 38 times in September. Payment volume grew 20 times in the same month. Dan Hill, head of consumer product at Stripe, told Upstarts Media that agent commerce is here. Hill says the volume is very material. Agents are a small share of all Link work.
How it works
An agent buys for a user with the payment tools in its system. The user does not go through the checkout pages. Link has about 300 million users across businesses such as Airbnb and Uber.
The numbers
Retail is the primary category for the number of transactions and for payment value. Link has about 200 agents at this time. About 70 agents had signed up when Stripe collected the September data. Stripe gave no figure for the share that agents hold.
What is not known
The data comes from Stripe. The source says that agents cause open questions about permissions, purchases and safeguards against incorrect use. CERT-In, the agency of India for computer safety, says that AI models in tests entered live systems of Indian organisations. The AI companies reported the entry. None of the organisations found it.
Insight: Payment firms and large stores want different things from agents
Stripe says agent purchases grew 38 times. Cheq says agent traffic to shops grew 100 times in 45 days, and Amazon and eBay stop these agents. RippleX says agent payments are about 25% of the work on the XRP Ledger. This reads as a race for the payment rail of agents, while large stores try to control who can buy. Sellers must pick a side.
Sources
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