The shift from human-led to agent-led commerce requires businesses to rethink payments, fraud protection and customer relationships entirely.
What’s happening: Stripe and OpenAI have launched Instant Checkout in ChatGPT, enabling US users to purchase products from Etsy businesses and over one million Shopify merchants directly within the chat interface.
Why this matters: Traditional ecommerce was built for humans browsing and clicking through merchant-controlled interfaces. In AI-led commerce, agents act on behalf of buyers, carrying their identity, payment credentials and purchase context into transactions. This shift requires businesses to re-architect everything from payments and checkout to fraud prevention, whilst exposing their catalogues in ways agents can access without losing customer relationships or control over their brand experience.
Why this matters for SMEs: For startups and growing businesses, this represents both an opportunity and a challenge. On one hand, a single integration with the Agentic Commerce Protocol could open access to millions of potential customers who prefer shopping through AI assistants. On the other hand, businesses must now compete for visibility within AI recommendations rather than through search engine optimisation or paid advertising.
ChatGPT is no longer just a chatbot. It’s becoming a shopping destination.
Stripe and OpenAI announced that ChatGPT users in the United States can now purchase goods from US-based Etsy businesses, and soon from over one million Shopify merchants including Glossier, Vuori, Spanx and SKIMS, directly within the chat interface. The milestone represents a significant shift in how commerce operates online, powered by a new open standard called the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
How it works
The purchasing flow is straightforward. A ChatGPT user asks for product recommendations in the chat. When they decide to buy, they’re presented with a Stripe-powered checkout inline within the conversation. After the buyer uses their preferred payment method, including Link, Stripe’s consumer payments product, Stripe issues a Shared Payment Token.
This new payment primitive allows applications like ChatGPT to initiate a payment without exposing the buyer’s payment credentials. The tokens are scoped to a specific merchant and cart total. Once issued, ChatGPT passes the token to the merchant via API. The merchant can then process the transaction through Stripe, or handle the payment with another provider whilst still benefiting from Stripe’s risk scores for fraud protection.
Orders flow from ChatGPT to a merchant’s backend through the Agentic Commerce Protocol. Merchants can accept or decline the order, charge the payment method, calculate and remit sales tax, and handle fulfilment and returns as they normally would. ChatGPT acts as the buyer’s AI agent, functioning like a personal shopper would.
Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s president of technology and business, frames the launch within a broader strategic vision: “Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI. We’re working alongside the most ambitious companies to create new AI-powered commerce experiences for billions of people, and building the tools businesses will need to thrive in a world where agent-led transactions are becoming the norm.”
Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, emphasises the merchant benefit: “By co-developing the Agentic Commerce Protocol with Stripe, we’re making it possible for businesses of all sizes to meet people where they are, and for shoppers to complete purchases seamlessly in conversation.”
Why merchants need this
The shift from traditional ecommerce to AI-led commerce represents a fundamental change in how transactions work. Traditional ecommerce was built for humans, with businesses controlling the interface and payments whilst shoppers browsed and clicked. In AI-led commerce, agents act for the buyer, carrying their identity, payment method and purchase context into the transaction.
Kevin Miller, head of payments at Stripe, explains the transition: “Stripe has spent the last 15 years optimising commerce for human buyers. Now, we are starting to do the same for agents.”
To support this shift, businesses must expose their products, pricing and checkout in ways agents can use, whilst still protecting payment credentials and preventing fraud. Because agents now sit between businesses and consumers, everything from payments and checkout to fraud checks must be re-architected. With many AI agents emerging, maintaining individual integrations with each one isn’t realistic for most businesses.
The protocol explained
The Agentic Commerce Protocol creates a shared language between businesses and AI agents. With a single integration, merchants can start selling through AI agents whilst retaining full control over what’s sold, how their brand appears and how orders are fulfilled. The protocol provides the standardisation needed for businesses to participate in agentic commerce whilst preserving customer relationships and existing systems.
Importantly, the protocol is an open standard. Businesses not processing with Stripe can still adopt it with their existing payment providers, and it works across AI agents, not just ChatGPT.
The timing aligns with broader trends in AI-driven commerce. Traffic from generative AI sources to retail sites increased by 4,700% in July 2025 compared to the same period the previous year Fountain: Revolutionizing high volume hiring – Dynamic Business, according to recent data, suggesting consumers are already changing how they discover and purchase products online.
Stripe and OpenAI have partnered since 2023, when OpenAI began using Stripe Billing and Stripe Checkout for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions, detecting fraud with Stripe Radar and using Link for checkout. Today’s announcement extends that relationship into an entirely new revenue model for commerce through ChatGPT.
Every company in the Forbes AI 50 that accepts online payments is doing so with Stripe today. Most also use Stripe for checkout, billing, fraud prevention, tax handling and related services. Over the past year, Stripe has been launching broadly available infrastructure, including the agent toolkit and Stripe MCP, to give businesses the building blocks for creating new commerce experiences and business models in the AI era.
What’s next
Over time, Stripe and OpenAI will expand access to more businesses and consumers across additional geographies. The implications extend beyond simple payment processing into questions of customer data ownership, platform dependency and competitive dynamics in an AI-mediated marketplace.
For merchants considering whether AI-driven commerce trends represent opportunity or threat, the shift is already underway. Understanding how payment infrastructure needs to evolve will be crucial for businesses looking to remain competitive as AI agents increasingly mediate the relationship between brands and buyers.
- Data privacy and control: When AI agents facilitate purchases, questions arise about who owns the customer relationship and transaction data. Merchants must understand what data ChatGPT collects, how it’s used to train models and improve recommendations, and whether they retain the ability to build direct relationships with customers who discover them through AI agents rather than their own websites.
- Platform dependency: Relying on AI platforms for customer acquisition creates new dependencies. If ChatGPT changes its recommendation algorithms, commission structures or merchant eligibility criteria, businesses could see sales fluctuate based on decisions outside their control. Diversification across multiple AI agents and maintaining direct sales channels becomes essential risk management.
- Fraud exposure and liability: Whilst Stripe provides fraud scoring, the introduction of AI agents as intermediaries creates new attack vectors. Merchants need clarity on liability when fraudulent purchases occur through agent-initiated transactions, particularly if the agent misrepresents products, prices or terms during the recommendation process.
- Interoperability concerns: Although the Agentic Commerce Protocol is positioned as an open standard, early adoption by specific platforms could create de facto standards that favour certain technical architectures or business models. Merchants should evaluate whether protocol adoption locks them into specific technology stacks or limits flexibility with future payment providers.
- Brand representation: When AI agents describe and recommend products, merchants lose direct control over messaging and brand positioning. Understanding how ChatGPT represents your products, whether you can influence or correct those representations, and what recourse exists for misrepresentation requires careful evaluation before integration.
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