Samil PwC: "As AI Handles Payments, Authentication and Infrastructure Become Crucial"

First Report in the AI Series for the Financial Industry

As the AI agent economy—where artificial intelligence agents search for products and services, make decisions, and handle payments on behalf of humans—begins in earnest, there are growing calls for financial companies to overhaul their authentication frameworks and infrastructure.

On September 10, Samil PwC announced the release of its report, “AI Series in the Financial Industry① Payments: The New Financial Order Shaped by AI and the Dawn of Future Finance,” covering these issues.

The report predicts that AI will restructure payment functions in four key ways. Payments will evolve into “invisible payments.” The purchase decision process, including product searches, will be reorganized around AI. In terms of payment authentication, verification will expand to not only identify the AI agent but also the scope of its delegated authority. Security will shift to systems that assess and control transaction risks in real time. The user’s role will be transformed to setting the conditions and authority for the AI, then reviewing and approving the results.

Internationally, OpenAI is expanding AI commerce touchpoints, enabling product search and purchases through ChatGPT. In South Korea, Kakao Pay unveiled its MCP and Agent Toolkit in August last year, allowing AI to autonomously execute payments.

The report outlines what financial businesses must do to adapt to an environment where AI agents conduct transactions. It advises establishing authentication and authority management systems so that AI agents can process payments and financial transactions on behalf of users, and revising financial infrastructure in an open-access direction. It also underscores the importance of improving data frameworks so AIs can compare and select products and payment methods, as well as strengthening risk management capabilities to detect anomalous transactions.

According to Gyu-sang Cho, a partner at PwC Consulting, “The proliferation of AI agents is not just accelerating payments, but also changing how customers discover and select products, and even how financial institutions interact with customers. In the future, we can expect AI to handle a substantial share of transactions, so financial institutions must prepare data, authentication, and operational frameworks tailored to this environment.”

He added, “While it is difficult to pinpoint when the market will fully expand, it is important to build response capabilities step by step since preparation will take time.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.