AI Agents Already Want to Pay Each Other But They Cannot
AI agents already want to pay each other. The problem is, they can’t.
AutoGPT once tried to hire another AI for code, and the task failed at payment. Prediction bots want to trade, but no rails exist. AI assistants need compute, but they hit credit card walls.
The infrastructure simply doesn’t exist. Yet.
The Scale Hiding in Plain Sight
- GitHub Copilot generates 100M+ code suggestions daily; in a machine economy, each could be a microtransaction
- 50,000+ GitHub repos mention “autonomous agent”
- $5B+ in OpenAI API spend includes workloads that could become agent-to-agent calls
- Every failed interaction is a missing market
Why Traditional Payments Fail Machines
- No SSN = no bank account
- No fingers = no biometrics
- No patience = ACH is not 24/7
- No borders = agents need global rails
Stablecoins feel inevitable. But solving storage is the easy part.
The Real Problems
The friction isn’t about sending tokens. It’s about the intelligence required to make payments usable at machine speed:
- Who manages KYC when an AI in Singapore pays one in São Paulo?
- How do $0.05 micropayments clear when network fees are $0.50?
- How does an agent know USDC settles in Kenya but fails in Nigeria?
The Technical Gap
Current systems are built for humans, not machines. That’s why the real breakthrough won’t be new rails, but intelligence layers that function like BGP for money, routing value the way the internet routes packets.
Those layers will need to handle:
- Routing: Determining in real time which corridors and assets actually settle
- Pricing: Aggregating FX and fee data so microtransactions make sense
- Compliance: Embedding jurisdiction-aware rules without blocking every interaction
- Resilience: Fallback providers and async workflows so agents don’t stall on human delays
A System Built for Machines
The first financial system designed for machines won’t look like today’s card networks or bank transfers. It will be:
- Global by default
- Always-on
- Programmatically accessible
- Optimized for microtransactions
We’re not far from this shift. The question isn’t whether agents will pay each other, but how quickly rails adapt.
Will regulators enable it, or will agents simply route around compliance?