Trulioo partners with payment platform Worldpay to offer Know Your Agent to merchants

AI agents may not be booking our holidays or filling our online shopping carts yet, but digital ID companies such as Trulioo believe that a future where verifying agent identities is necessary isn’t far off. Payments platform Worldpay seems to agree – the two companies have announced a new deal which will introduce a Know Your Agent (KYA) framework for online merchants who want to enable consumers to shop through AI agents.

The framework is designed to identify an agent, bringing peace of mind to merchants, payment providers and consumers.

AI agents are software systems that perform tasks autonomously on behalf of a user. Merchants, however, must ensure that the consumers have granted authority to agents to perform a transaction, as well as block malicious bots and unauthorized transactions. The Know Your Agent (KYA) ensures that there is a clear and auditable trace of the shopper’s consent.

The framework also lays out guidelines for verifying the developer’s identity, code integrity and the trustworthiness of the agent in real-time, the firms say in a release.

“Agentic commerce has significant potential, but it can only scale with trust built in from the start,” says Trulioo CEO Vicky Bindra.

Worldpay is willing to test that potential. The U.S.-based financial services company operates in more than 170 countries, works with one million merchants, and processes US$2.5 trillion of payments annually.

The introduction of AI agents into online shopping is expected to grow sales by streamlining the purchasing experience. A shopper, for instance, could buy a product during a live stream without opening a browser. The agent will fill a shopping cart, transfer funds, approve invoices and complete purchases, Vicky Bindra explained in an earlier interview with trade publication Pymnts.

At the center of KYA is a Digital Agent Passport, a tamper‑proof credential that holds details on each AI agent, including provenance, user binding, permission scope, real‑time behavior telemetry and continuous risk scoring.

Earlier this year, Trulioo published a white paper with AI agent infrastructure company PayOS detailing the concept of KYA. The company proposes the establishment of Digital Passport Authorities that could issue, sign and revoke passports that could be run by identity providers, payment networks, or industry consortia.

Article Topics

AI agents  |  digital identity  |  digital payments  |  ecommerce  |  KYA  |  Trulioo  |  WorldPay