A new industry resource has been launched to help merchants, payment providers and fraud leaders address emerging trust and risk challenges as AI agents become increasingly involved in online purchasing decisions.
Ballerine, an agentic merchant risk and compliance platform, has unveiled Agenticom.org, a research and collaboration hub focused on the rapidly evolving field of agentic commerce, where AI systems can discover products, recommend merchants and potentially initiate transactions on behalf of consumers.
The launch is backed by original research conducted by Ballerine involving 47 interviews with card schemes, payment service providers (PSPs), acquirers, merchants and AI platforms, alongside analysis of merchant data and wider industry research.
The findings suggest the payments ecosystem may be unprepared for the pace at which agentic commerce is developing.
According to the research, 73% of online merchants are currently not “agent-ready”, lacking the structured data, verification signals, compliance controls and operational transparency that AI agents are expected to rely on when recommending or initiating transactions.
At the same time, demand for agentic commerce is growing significantly faster than merchant preparedness, creating what researchers describe as a widening trust gap across the ecosystem.
The report also warns that AI agents are already recommending unreliable merchants in some cases, raising concerns around fraud exposure, merchant verification and transaction integrity.
The data points to a new challenge: ensuring AI systems have access to trusted merchant signals before autonomous purchasing becomes mainstream.
Noam Izhaki, Co-founder and CEO of Ballerine, said merchant readiness must become a core component of agentic commerce infrastructure.
“Agentic commerce will not scale on buyer intelligence alone,” he said. “As agents begin to participate more directly in transactions, they need to account for more than just product discovery. Merchant readiness, compliance and operational risk all become part of the decisioning layer.”
The new platform aims to serve as a central knowledge hub for the industry, providing research, expert analysis, ecosystem mapping and commentary on topics including AI-powered payments, autonomous transactions, fraud prevention, compliance and regulatory developments.
