BNPL was designed for people making purchasing decisions. Agentic commerce shifts those decisions to software. The result is an infrastructure mismatch: autonomous buyers operating on systems built to verify human intent.
As AI agents begin purchasing, financing, and managing transactions on behalf of consumers, BNPL providers may become an early test case for questions the broader payments ecosystem is only beginning to recognize:
- How do you verify intent when the buyer is software?
- How do you underwrite a purchase when the decision-making process is invisible?
- And who bears responsibility when an agent acts exactly as instructed but produces an outcome the consumer never wanted?
Agentic commerce separates intent from action
BNPL providers are accustomed to customers selecting a product, reviewing the price, choosing a financing option, and accepting the repayment terms. Every step creates signals that help lenders assess both risk and intent.
The model works because the person making the purchase and the person assuming the debt are the same. Agentic commerce breaks that link.
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Rory Herriman, CTO and COO at Zip Co
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