At Google I/O, they just announced "agentic checkout" - letting users complete purchases *directly within search results.*
This could be a genuine existential threat to every step in the payments value chain.
Here's why this changes everything 👇
1. The Fintech arms race just accelerated
This is no coincidence:
• OpenAI hired Instacart CEO Fidji Simo for consumer operations
• Perplexity embedded Stripe within its chatbot
• Visa, Mastercard and PayPal announced agentic commerce services in April
Google's response? Gemini 2.5 (their most advanced AI) will power checkout directly in search.
The battle for who owns the moment before, during and after payment has begun.
2. The checkout page is dying
For decades, merchants optimized checkout pages for conversion:
• A/B tests on button colors
• Reducing form fields
• One-click purchasing
• Cart abandonment emails
Now Google's agentic checkout could make all that irrelevant.
The agent can even "pay autonomously" - removing humans entirely from the payment flow.
Merchants will need entirely new optimization strategies.
3. The fraud prevention nightmare begins
When Google's AI completes transactions:
• Who handles fraudulent purchases?
• What happens when products don't match descriptions?
• How do you validate customer identity?
• Who owns risk management?
Current fraud tools are built for human behaviors, not AI agents acting on behalf of humans.
Every fraud model needs retraining - FAST.
We need a directory for Agents and network tokens (whitepaper coming soon on this)
4. The bigger fintech strategy is clear
Google is transforming "search into a big AI chatbot" with:
• Shopping features in search
• Virtual try-ons with your own photos
• Price tracking with notifications
• Agentic checkout in "a few months"
• Integration with your Gmail, Docs, and Calendar
My takeaway.
The first platform to make agentic commerce seamless wins the next decade.
Every Fintech CEO should be in emergency planning mode right now.
• Payment providers: How will you integrate with Google's system?
• Merchant acquirers: How will you manage these new flows?
• Checkout optimizers: What's your new value proposition?
• Risk platforms: How will you adapt your models?
The future of advertising was always commerce.
The future of commerce is loyalty and data.
AI Agents could link all of those.
This post was originally shared by on Linkedin.