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PayPal and Google Cloud want machines to pay each other. No humans needed.
Representatives from both companies laid out what they think needs to happen before devices can buy and sell stuff on their own. They’re calling it agentic commerce, and it’s basically your fridge ordering milk without asking you first. But instead of just auto-reordering through Amazon, we’re talking about devices that hold crypto, negotiate prices, and settle payments independently. The tech isn’t there yet. Not even close.
What Needs to Happen First
Open payment protocols sit at the top of the list. These protocols would let devices talk to each other and move money around without a human clicking “confirm” every time. Think of it as a universal language for automated transactions. Right now, payment systems are pretty much siloed. PayPal talks to PayPal. Banks talk to banks. Getting a smart car to pay a charging station in real time, across different networks, without pre-programmed partnerships? That’s the goal.
Machine-readable merchant catalogs are the second piece. Devices need to know what’s for sale, how much it costs, and who’s selling it. And they need to figure that out on their own. A catalog that a machine can read and interpret would speed things up and cut out the middleman. No more humans browsing product pages. The device does it, picks what it needs, and moves on.
Multi-party crypto custody came up a lot. Both companies think shared management of digital assets is the way forward. Instead of one entity holding the keys to a wallet, multiple parties split the responsibility. That spreads the risk. If one party gets hacked or goes rogue, the assets don’t vanish. It’s a trust thing. People—and devices—won’t use a system if they think their funds can disappear overnight.
Why Custody Matters More Than You’d Think
Custody is kind of the whole ballgame here. Devices can’t hold private keys the way humans do. They can’t remember seed phrases or lock a hardware wallet in a safe. So if a device is going to own crypto and spend it autonomously, someone—or several someones—needs to manage those assets securely. Multi-party custody splits that job up. It’s collaborative, and it’s designed to prevent single points of failure.
The representatives didn’t name specific partners or projects. They didn’t give a timeline either. No launch dates, no pilot programs, no “coming soon” promises. Just the broad strokes of what needs to exist before agentic commerce can work at scale.
But the vision is clear enough. Devices that can transact on their own could change how commerce works. Imagine a delivery drone that pays for its own battery swaps. Or a data server that buys computing power from other servers when demand spikes. No invoices, no purchase orders, no humans in the loop. Just machines doing business with machines.
Sounds wild. Probably is.
The Infrastructure Isn’t Ready
Getting there means building infrastructure that doesn’t really exist yet. Open protocols need to be designed, tested, and adopted across industries. Merchant catalogs need to be standardized so every device can read them the same way. And custody solutions need to be secure enough that people trust them with real money.
PayPal and Google Cloud are exploring how to make it happen. They’re looking at partnerships, though they didn’t say with who. They’re working on innovations, though the details are vague. The focus is on laying groundwork, not shipping products.
Security is a big question mark. Automated systems are only as safe as their weakest link. If a device gets compromised, can it drain a wallet? If a protocol has a bug, does the whole network go down? Multi-party custody helps, but it’s not a silver bullet. The industry is still figuring out how to balance automation with safety.
Trust is another hurdle. People don’t trust machines with money yet. Not really. And businesses won’t hand over payment authority to devices unless they’re confident the system won’t screw up. Building that confidence takes time, transparency, and probably a few high-profile failures along the way.
The path forward is messy. There’s no clear roadmap, no consensus on standards, and no guarantee that any of this will work the way PayPal and Google Cloud envision. But the companies are betting that agentic commerce is coming, and they want to be the ones building the rails.
Machine-readable catalogs would let devices scan and interpret merchant data without human help. That means faster transactions and fewer errors. A device could compare prices across vendors, check availability, and place an order in milliseconds. For industries that rely on speed—logistics, energy, finance—that’s a big deal.
The representatives said these catalogs would need to be standardized. If every merchant uses a different format, devices can’t parse the data. So the industry would need to agree on a common structure. That’s easier said than done. Getting competitors to align on technical standards usually takes years, if it happens at all.
Open payment protocols would work the same way. Devices from different manufacturers, running different software, would need to transact seamlessly. That requires interoperability, which requires cooperation. PayPal and Google Cloud are pushing for it, but they can’t build it alone. Other payment processors, hardware makers, and blockchain networks would need to buy in.
No timeline was given for when any of this might launch. The representatives made it clear that the technology is still in development. The focus right now is on identifying what needs to exist, not on shipping a finished product. Agentic commerce is a long-term play, not a 2026 launch.
The emphasis on multi-party custody came up repeatedly. Both companies see it as a way to reduce risk and build trust in automated systems. By distributing asset management across multiple parties, the risk of theft or loss drops. It’s not foolproof, but it’s better than a single custodian holding everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce refers to automated transactions conducted by devices without human intervention, relying on advanced technological frameworks like open payment protocols and multi-party crypto custody.
What are the key components needed for agentic commerce?
Open payment protocols, machine-readable merchant catalogs, and multi-party crypto custody are the main components PayPal and Google Cloud representatives identified as crucial for scaling agentic commerce.
When will agentic commerce be available?
No specific timeline has been disclosed. The technology and infrastructure are still in development, and PayPal and Google Cloud are exploring partnerships and innovations to bring the vision to life.
