In recent months, technology and payments companies have begun deploying tools that allow artificial intelligence systems to autonomously complete financial transactions on behalf of users. In March, Banco Santander announced the successful completion of the first live end-to-end payment executed by an AI agent within a regulated banking framework, demonstrating that automated systems can initiate and complete transactions on behalf of consumers.
Payment networks, technology companies and financial platforms have also begun introducing tools designed to support agent-driven commerce and autonomous purchasing.
These developments mark a shift from AI systems that assist with financial decisions through fraud detection, underwriting analytics or customer service to systems designed to execute tasks autonomously, including selecting products, initiating payments and interacting with financial accounts.
The concept is often described as agentic AI. In this model, a user provides a goal, and the system determines how to complete the task across digital services using one or more AI agents.
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