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At Sibos 2026, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller discussed how AI could improve cross-border payment screening and routing, and how AI agents could eventually shop and pay on consumers’ behalf. He described agentic commerce as being in an early phase and said delegated purchases will require stronger trust mechanisms and safeguards.
Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said artificial intelligence could help make cross-border payments more efficient and support a new form of online shopping in which AI agents make purchases for consumers. In a speech delivered at Sibos 2026 in Miami on September 29, he stressed that agentic commerce remains at an early stage and that autonomous payments will need stronger safeguards against unintended transactions and cyber threats.
Waller pointed to potential AI applications in sanctions screening and anti-money-laundering checks. He said research has found that large language models can reduce false-positive alerts, allowing payment providers to focus resources on more complex, higher-risk cases and potentially reduce delays for legitimate transactions. He expects these models to complement faster, traditional anomaly-detection systems rather than replace them.
AI agents could also help address the optimization involved in cross-border payment routing, such as balancing cost, speed and reliability. Waller said agents could potentially assist providers with foreign-exchange conversion and liquidity decisions, including when to convert currencies and whether to net offsetting payment flows. These are possibilities he outlined, not results from a deployed system described in the speech.
Waller distinguished between agent-assisted commerce, where consumers use AI to search for products but make decisions and payments themselves, and agent-delegated commerce, where consumers authorize 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 expected to be the first wave, with assisted uses preceding more autonomous ones.
Safeguards for Agent-Led Purchases
If AI agents begin completing purchases as well as recommending products, payment systems will need to distinguish between a consumer’s authorized instructions and an agent’s actions. The delegated model raises particular questions about spending limits, payment credentials and what happens when an agent misunderstands a request. Waller said it carries greater risk of unintended purchases and needs a more extensive buildout of trust mechanisms and guardrails.
The implications reach beyond online shopping. Cross-border transactions pass through multiple jurisdictions, and Waller said AI may help payment providers detect illicit activity and make routing decisions. At the same time, he warned that a successful attack on interconnected payment infrastructure could disrupt international commerce. The potential efficiency gains therefore sit alongside operational and security risks.
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From Payment Screening to AI Agents
Waller situated the discussion within a longer history of AI use in payments. He said the industry has used machine learning to combat payment fraud and adopted large language models for tasks such as payment reconciliation. The next development, in his account, is infrastructure that lets agents plan and carry out multistep tasks, including transactions.
At an industry roundtable hosted at the Federal Reserve earlier in 2026, market participants broadly agreed that agentic commerce is still in its early phase, Waller said. Consumers could encounter agents through general-purpose AI services, merchant-specific tools or personal assistants. His speech described possible models and challenges, not a timetable for broad adoption or a new payment standard.
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Adoption and Control Questions Remain
Waller did not specify when agent-delegated shopping might scale, which technical standards would govern it or which institutions would be responsible when an agent makes an unauthorized purchase. The speech also did not identify a particular agent-based payment product or report measured improvements from AI in live cross-border payment networks.
Waller said useful agents will need broad, real-time knowledge, but the supplied speech text ends while he is developing that point. It does not provide further detail on how agents would access current product information, handle payment authorization or protect consumer data. The scale of potential cybersecurity benefits and risks also remains uncertain.
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Building Trust Before Delegation
The next steps will depend on payment firms, merchants, AI providers and regulators working through how consumers authorize agent actions and how those actions can be limited or checked. For delegated payments, practical questions include how to set spending caps, restrict purchases to specified categories, confirm transactions and respond to errors. Waller’s speech identifies these as areas requiring stronger trust mechanisms and guardrails, but does not announce a formal program or deadline.
Payment providers will also need to test how AI fits alongside existing fraud detection and cybersecurity defenses. Waller said the industry should move deliberately to use AI to strengthen payment-system safety. Whether the technology delivers the proposed gains in screening, routing and shopping will depend on implementation, security and consumer adoption.
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Key Questions
What did Christopher Waller say about AI and payments?
Waller said AI could help with illicit-finance screening and cross-border payment optimization, while AI agents could eventually make purchases for consumers. He also warned of cybersecurity risks and the need for safeguards.
What is agent-delegated commerce?
It is a model in which a consumer authorizes an AI agent to shop and pay on their behalf, potentially subject to limits or other instructions. Waller contrasted it with agent-assisted shopping, where the consumer remains in control of decisions and payment.
Is agentic commerce already widespread?
No adoption figures were provided in Waller’s speech. He said market participants regard agentic commerce as being in an early phase, with assisted uses expected to precede more autonomous delegated purchases.
How could AI affect cross-border payments?
Waller said AI could help reduce false-positive alerts in sanctions and anti-money-laundering screening and could support decisions about routing, currency conversion and liquidity. These were described as potential applications, not confirmed results from a specific system.
What risks did Waller identify?
He cited the possibility of more sophisticated cyberattacks and the danger that agents could make unintended purchases. The speech did not set out a specific technical or regulatory framework for managing those risks.
Source: primary
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