The spread of artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a key factor expected to lift adoption of the XRP Ledger (XRPL).

On June 18, blockchain outlet U.Today reported that EasyA co-founder Phil Kwok voiced strong optimism, saying AI could create a technical turning point for the Ripple ecosystem.

Kwok said, "AI will accelerate adoption of the XRP Ledger" and added, "I strongly believe that AI agents are one of the keys to unlocking this ecosystem and sending it to the next level." He described his outlook as "bullish."

The core of the forecast is that software is becoming an independent market participant. Kwok cited this as the basis for network growth. He argued that if AI agents that operate without direct human instructions become players in payments and settlement, demand for corresponding financial infrastructure will inevitably rise as well.

This direction is already taking shape within the Ripple ecosystem. Earlier this week, RippleX developer Ayo Akinyere said autonomous AI agents are already becoming "economic actors" and need dedicated financial infrastructure.

The technical foundation is also being built. Ripple is participating as one of the key partners in Mastercard's "Agent Pay for Machines" initiative. The RippleX team led by Akinyere also unveiled an "XRPL AI Starter Kit." The combination targets an environment in which AI agents hold their own crypto wallets and can pay each other without human intervention.

The use cases presented are payments for server rental fees, API access costs and data transfer fees. Such transactions are closer to a structure handled automatically by machines than one approved directly by people. As a result, the number of payments could rise, but the amount per transaction is likely to fall.

Akinyere forecast that large remittances that happen infrequently will be replaced by "nano payments." He said XRPL is originally optimised for high speed and low fees, and could become a unique environment suited to machine-to-machine payments.

From a market perspective, a key point is the change in who carries out transactions. Optimism is circulating that in the near term, the scale of robot-to-robot payments could exceed the total number of transactions among people. Taken together, Kwok's remarks and Akinyere's technical explanation suggest AI agents are emerging as a new source of demand for XRP and a catalyst for broader use of XRPL.

Against this backdrop, the key question for XRPL is becoming clearer. The issue is not whether it remains simply a crypto remittance network, but whether it can establish itself as payment infrastructure that handles transactions between AI agents and machines. If Ripple can connect related partnerships and development tools to real-world use, discussion of broader XRPL adoption could shift from human-centred payments to machine-centred payments.

ai will accelerate adoption of the xrp ledger.@Ripple knows it.@bgarlinghouse knows it. we know it. i strongly believe that ai agents are one of the keys to unlocking this ecosystem and sending it to the next level. bullish ai and crypto. pic.twitter.com/9M40F8w4x1