AI Agents and the Future of Payments: Trust, Stablecoins, and Programmable Money

A TechCrunch Disrupt panel hosted by Marina Temkin brings together panelists from traditional payments, Circle, and Emergence Capital to examine how payments and financial infrastructure must adapt when AI agents, rather than humans, initiate and complete transactions.

The conversation covers:
■ Consumer and merchant trust
- Whether users will delegate booking, purchasing, and payment decisions to personal agents.
- Merchant concerns about fraud, chargebacks, and accepting agent-initiated orders.

■ Payment rails and programmable money
- Limitations of existing card networks for agent commerce and the role of virtual cards.
- Stablecoins for global dollar access, B2B settlement, programmability, and agent-to-agent trading.
- Comparisons with RTP, FedNow, and traditional bank rails.

■ Regulation, identity, and liability
- KYC, KYB, and emerging KYA (Know Your Agent) concepts.
- AML, audit trails, and responsibility when an agent errs or is compromised.

■ Future outlook
- Potential timelines for agent adoption, open questions around dispute resolution, and the impact of stablecoin regulation.

This panel is suited to fintech founders, payments professionals, investors, and AI builders seeking a structured overview of the technical, regulatory, and trust barriers to agent-driven commerce. Viewers can expect to better understand the key debates and open questions shaping the next phase of digital payments.