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Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said AI could improve cross-border payment screening and routing, while AI agents may eventually shop and pay for consumers. He described agentic commerce as being at an early stage and said delegated purchasing needs stronger trust 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 buy goods for consumers. In a speech at Sibos 2026 in Miami on September 29, he also warned that AI could intensify cyber risks and said autonomous purchasing would require stronger safeguards than agent-assisted shopping.
Waller pointed to anti-money-laundering and sanctions screening as an area where large language models could help payment providers. He said research has found that the models can reduce false-positive alerts, allowing staff to focus on more complex, higher-risk cases and potentially reducing friction for legitimate transactions. He expects AI to augment, not replace, faster conventional anomaly-detection systems.
AI may also help payment providers select cross-border routes by balancing cost, speed and reliability, and manage currency conversion and liquidity. Waller described these as potential gains, dependent on having suitable data and criteria. He also noted that AI tools could assist cyber defenders with threat detection and vulnerability prevention, while warning that attackers may use AI to make cyberattacks more capable.
Waller divided agentic commerce into agent-assisted and agent-delegated models. In the first, an agent helps find products but the consumer decides and pays. In the second, the consumer authorizes an agent to shop and pay within limits—for example, using a pre-funded virtual card to order groceries based on past purchases. He said consumer-to-business transactions are expected to be an early use case, with assisted shopping likely to precede more autonomous purchasing.
AI Could Change How Payments Are Approved
The developments Waller described could affect both the back end of payment systems and the consumer’s shopping experience. Better screening or payment routing could reduce some delays and operational costs, while delegated agents could shift routine purchasing decisions from shoppers to software. These are potential outcomes, not demonstrated results across payment networks.
The change also makes authorization and accountability more important. When an agent is allowed to make a purchase, consumers and merchants need ways to define spending limits, verify transactions and address errors or unauthorized activity. Waller’s warning about the uneven cyber burden matters because interconnected payment systems rely on operators and providers defending many potential points of attack.
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From Fraud Detection to Agent Shopping
Waller said payments firms have used machine learning for fraud prevention and adopted large language models for tasks such as reconciliation. His speech framed AI agents as a further step: systems that use language models to plan and carry out multistep processes, potentially including transactions.
At an industry roundtable hosted by the Federal Reserve at the start of the summer, participants discussed agentic commerce. Waller said market participants broadly viewed it as early-stage, though it could reshape commerce and payments if adoption grows. His remarks were a discussion of possible effects and open questions, not an announcement of a new Federal Reserve payment service or policy.
“I expect LLMs to augment, rather than replace, faster, more traditional anomaly detection methods.”
— Christopher J. Waller, Federal Reserve governor
Adoption and Safeguards Remain Open
Waller did not provide a timeline or adoption forecast for agent-delegated commerce, nor did he identify common standards for authorization, liability or dispute resolution. The precise safeguards consumers will need—and who would set or enforce them—remain unsettled in the speech.
His remarks also did not quantify expected savings or error rates from AI-supported screening and routing. The cited research on false-positive alerts was not accompanied in the speech excerpt by specific figures, study details or a measure of performance across live payment systems. The extent to which AI can improve security without introducing new vulnerabilities remains uncertain.
Testing Trust in Agentic Payments
The next developments will depend on how payment firms, merchants and AI providers test these systems and set boundaries on an agent’s authority. For delegated purchases, practical milestones include reliable identity and payment authorization, clear spending limits, transaction records and procedures for disputed or unintended orders.
Waller’s speech set out questions for the industry rather than a formal implementation schedule. Providers’ decisions on real-time data access, cyber defenses and consumer protections will help determine whether agent-assisted tools remain the main use case or consumers become comfortable delegating purchases.
Key Questions
What did Christopher Waller say about AI and payments?
He said AI could help with cross-border payment screening and routing, while warning that it could also increase cyber risks. He discussed AI agents that may shop and pay for consumers.
What is the difference between agent-assisted and agent-delegated commerce?
In agent-assisted commerce, the AI helps a shopper find products but the person makes the purchase and pays. In delegated commerce, the shopper authorizes the agent to buy within set limits.
Is AI already handling payments autonomously at scale?
Waller described agentic commerce as being in an early phase. His speech did not give adoption figures or say that autonomous purchasing is widespread.
How could AI affect cross-border payments?
AI could help identify suspicious activity, reduce false-positive screening alerts and select routes based on cost, speed and reliability. Waller presented these as potential uses, not guaranteed improvements.
What remains unresolved about AI agents making purchases?
Questions include how consumers authorize agents, set spending limits, challenge unwanted purchases and determine responsibility when an agent makes an error. Waller did not provide a timeline or a common set of safeguards.
Source: primary
