Agents on Both Sides
Leo Gau@leogau
The idea
I believe discovery, booking and buying will increasingly flow through personal AI agents, and every business will need its own systems to tell trusted agents from bad bots and handle the flood. This basket spans four layers: payment networks that let agents pay safely, identity and security firms that verify them, enterprise software companies building business-side agents, and storefront platforms making products readable to agents. Payments carry the steady weight while agent commerce is still small, with a cash reserve kept aside to add on weakness over a three to five year horizon.
What it owns
- Every purchase an AI agent makes still has to run through a card network that can prove the agent is authorized to spend the money. · Mastercard IncorporatedIt operates the payment network where agent transactions settle using tokenized card credentials, so merchant adoption of agent payment methods determines its growth., Visa Inc.It runs the network processing purchases made by agents using card tokens, and its commercial agent protocol shapes how these transactions flow., American Express CompanyIt published a framework for trusted agent shopping and relies on merchants accepting its card network as agents become a primary shopping channel., Affirm Holdings, Inc.It provides pay-later options that agents can offer at checkout, so it depends on being integrated into agent purchasing flows rather than reserved for human shoppers., PayPal Holdings, Inc.It wants to be the wallet option agents select inside AI assistants, but loses relevance if major assistants default to card networks or other payment methods at checkout.29%
- As software agents handle more traffic, businesses need specialized services to distinguish legitimate agents from scrapers and fraudulent activity. · Cloudflare, Inc.It filters bot traffic and decides which agents reach websites, making it the bouncer for most internet traffic as agent requests scale., Okta, Inc.It manages login credentials and permissions for agents acting on behalf of businesses, replacing manual identity verification with automated agent authentication., Akamai Technologies, Inc.It filters bot and agent traffic at the internet's edge for retailers, airlines and banks, the places where agent request volume will concentrate first., Palo Alto Networks, Inc.It secures the machine identities of millions of agents by treating agent security as a specialized problem distinct from human user security., F5, Inc.It protects applications and APIs from automated abuse by distinguishing real customers from agent-driven requests, managing traffic as machine interactions rise.26%
- Companies are building their own agents to handle customer requests, negotiate terms, and complete transactions with incoming customer agents. · ServiceNow, Inc.It runs the backend workflows that execute customer requests, so it stays relevant only if businesses buy ServiceNow's agents to handle that work instead of building their own., Salesforce, Inc.It sells agents to companies that already store customer records on its platform, but depends on those businesses paying for agent capabilities rather than finding them elsewhere., Twilio Inc.It carries agent-to-business conversations across text, voice and messaging for thousands of companies, growing as agents talk to businesses over its pipes., NICE Ltd.It runs contact centers and sells AI agents to answer customers, staying relevant only if companies build those agents on its software rather than replacing the entire contact center setup.22%
- Agents can only choose stores whose products are listed in machine-readable formats and whose checkout systems work with automated buyers. · Shopify Inc.It syncs its merchants' product catalogs to agents and handles agent checkout standards across millions of stores, making stores readable to automated buyers., Klaviyo, Inc.It stores customer data for online merchants, but risks losing value if agents reduce the email and text marketing that makes up most of its revenue., Wix.com Ltd.It makes small business websites readable to agents so those merchants can be discovered and purchased from through automated shopping, though this value disappears if agents let sellers bypass websites.15%
- Cash8%