As competition among tech companies to provide IT infrastructure optimized for AI agents, rather than people, accelerates, a fierce tussle is also unfolding in payments between established players and emerging forces.

Digital payments platform Stripe is speeding up efforts to target the AI agent-based shopping market, drawing attention as it threatens the standing of the credit card networks Visa and Mastercard, which have long dominated the global payments landscape.

Meta's personal AI agents Muse and Instinct both chose Stripe's digital wallet Link, which stores users' card or bank account information, as their payment method.

Customer service-focused AI agent company Sierra partnered with Stripe to introduce a feature that lets customers complete consultations, payments and receipt delivery in a single call.

The market in which AI agents shop in place of people is still in its early stages, but growth is steep.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (마크 저커버그) recently told investors that more than a quarter of Muse's 10 million users shop via the app. The average transaction amount exceeds $200. As demand exceeded expectations, Meta raised Muse's payment limit in talks with Stripe.

According to Decoder, the number of Link transactions in September rose 38-fold and the payment amount increased 20-fold. Stripe did not disclose actual purchase volumes or amounts. Stripe executive Dan Hill (댄 힐) said transaction volume has now reached a meaningful level.

Link operates by having Stripe issue a one-time virtual card when an AI agent makes a payment. The virtual card can pay only up to an amount the user has authorized. The agent cannot see the user's real card number and cannot spend beyond the authorized amount.

From a merchant's standpoint, the virtual card can be accepted like a regular card. Stripe then charges the user's credit card. It can be seen as Stripe paying the merchant first with the virtual card and later collecting from the user's card.

For traditional credit card companies, virtual cards like Link are an awkward presence in their own way.

According to a recent report by The Information, a virtual card means a single purchase results in two transactions, making it harder to link the user with the actual purchase. That could also mean it may not be easy to determine whether a complaint that a payment was never made is valid.

The Information highlighted this by citing a source close to Mastercard and reported: "Card networks and banks look at users' transaction histories to screen out risky or suspected fraudulent transactions."

Credit card companies' desire to quietly rein in Stripe is not only due to risks surrounding virtual cards. It also needs to be viewed as a fight over who gets the spoils.

If Stripe can see what people buy through agents and secure an early lead, it can also build the power to influence the direction of AI agent payments.

Rene Reinsberg (르네 라인스버그), CEO of identity and payments tools startup Self for AI agents, said via The Information: "The biggest business risk to Visa and Mastercard is Stripe infrastructure becoming the default solution."

If transactions take place through Link, Stripe can also switch the credit card. That means a user may register a Mastercard, but the actual payment could be made with a Visa virtual card. Stripe works with both Visa and Mastercard, but The Information reported it remains unclear which of the two will capture a greater share of AI shopping payments.

This backdrop is driving card companies to speed up the expansion of AI agent payment technology.

Visa and Mastercard are backing technologies that let AI agents make payments through tokens linked to users' cards, under Visa Intelligence Commerce and Master Card Agent Pay, respectively. In that case, payments continue to run on the user's card. It cannot be swapped out in the middle the way Stripe can.

Mastercard said multiple payment methods can coexist, but it forecast that over the long term, token-based transactions directly connected to merchants will become the dominant approach.

Banks, which play an important role in card payments, also appear for now to be siding with card companies. In a draft industry guideline released in September, 6 banks including Bank of America called for an "auditable" payment information input method. The Information reported they did not single out virtual cards, but were wary of payment methods that make it harder to link purchases with actual users and merchants.