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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said AI could improve parts of cross-border payments, including fraud screening and payment routing, while also aiding cyber defense. He described agentic commerce as an early-stage development, with consumer-controlled tools likely to come before agents authorized to make purchases autonomously.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said artificial intelligence could help improve cross-border payment screening and routing, while AI agents may eventually shop and pay on consumers’ behalf. In a speech at Sibos 2026 in Miami on September 29, he described agentic commerce as an early-stage development and said autonomous purchasing would require stronger trust mechanisms and safeguards.
Waller said payments companies already use machine learning to combat fraud and have adopted large language models for tasks such as payment reconciliation. He said AI could also assist with sanctions screening and anti-money-laundering systems. Research, he noted, has found that language models can reduce false-positive alerts, potentially allowing investigators to focus on higher-risk cases and reducing friction for legitimate transactions. He expects these models to augment, rather than replace, faster conventional anomaly-detection tools.
AI agents could also help with the complex decisions involved in moving money across borders, Waller said. Given suitable data and criteria, they may help balance cost, speed and reliability when selecting payment routes, as well as support decisions about foreign-exchange conversion and liquidity. These are possibilities he raised, not outcomes he said have already been established at scale.
Waller distinguished between agent-assisted commerce, in which a person uses an agent to search for products but makes the decisions and pays, and agent-delegated commerce, in which a consumer authorizes an agent to shop and pay within set limits. He gave the example of an agent using a pre-funded virtual card to order groceries based on past purchases. He said consumer-to-business transactions are likely to be the first area of adoption, with assisted uses preceding more autonomous delegated ones.
AI’s Role in Payments and Commerce
The potential changes span both the operation of payment systems and the point at which a consumer makes a purchase. Better screening could reduce delays for legitimate cross-border payments, while routing tools could help providers manage choices involving exchange rates, liquidity and delivery speed. Waller framed these as potential efficiency gains, not guaranteed results.
Delegated purchasing also changes who initiates a transaction. When an agent can act without a person approving each individual purchase, consumers and payment providers need ways to define authority, limits and accountability. Waller said this model carries a higher risk of unintended purchases, making trust and guardrails central to any wider use. The same technology may also support cyber defenders, but could increase the capabilities of attackers.
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From Payment Automation to Agents
Waller’s speech followed remarks he made at the previous year’s Sibos, when he discussed emerging technologies and global payments. In his 2026 address, he focused on AI, describing payments as an industry with a history of using machine learning for fraud prevention and language models for reconciliation.
He also referred to an industry roundtable on agentic commerce that he hosted at the Federal Reserve earlier in the summer. According to Waller, market participants broadly regard the field as being in an early phase, even as they see potential for it to reshape commerce and payments if adoption grows. The speech presented possible uses and challenges; it did not announce a new Federal Reserve policy or payment product.
“I expect LLMs to augment, rather than replace, faster, more traditional anomaly detection methods.”
— Christopher Waller, Federal Reserve governor
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Adoption and Safeguards Remain Open
Waller did not specify how quickly agentic commerce might expand, which technical standards or liability rules could govern delegated purchases, or how consumers would set and revoke an agent’s authority. The speech also did not identify particular payment networks or providers that have deployed the capabilities at scale.
The possible gains in screening and routing depend on data quality, system design and how AI tools perform in real operating environments. Waller cited research on reductions in false-positive alerts but did not provide a study name or numerical result in the speech text provided. He also warned that AI could strengthen cyberattacks as well as defenses, leaving the net effect on payment-system security uncertain.
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How Agentic Payments Develop
The next developments will depend on whether businesses can make agents useful while keeping people in control of spending. Waller’s account suggests that agent-assisted shopping may precede delegated purchasing, which would require clearer authorization limits and safeguards against unintended transactions.
Payment providers and operators will also need to test AI tools for screening, routing and cyber defense against operational and security requirements. Waller did not set a timetable or announce a regulatory initiative. Adoption, performance evidence and the safeguards built around agents remain the milestones to watch.
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Key Questions
What did Christopher Waller say about AI and payments?
He said AI could assist with cross-border payment screening, payment routing, foreign-exchange and liquidity decisions, and cyber defense. He described these as potential uses rather than confirmed industry-wide outcomes.
What is agentic commerce?
It is the use of AI agents to help with or carry out shopping. In an assisted model, the consumer decides and pays; in a delegated model, the consumer authorizes the agent to shop and make payments within set limits.
Why does delegated shopping need safeguards?
An agent authorized to buy items may make an unintended purchase. Waller said delegated commerce calls for stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails, though his speech did not prescribe specific standards.
Is agentic commerce already widespread?
Waller said market participants view it as being in an early phase. He suggested consumer-to-business uses may emerge first and that assisted shopping is likely to come before more autonomous purchasing.
Source: primary
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