Agent payments, can you do my shopping? | The Agent Factory Podcast

How do you trust an AI agent with your credit card? Today's payment systems create a "crisis of trust," blocking autonomous commerce with challenges in authorization, accountability, and agent "hallucination". In this episode, Shir and Ivan are joined by Prateek Dudeja, a Product Manager from the Agent Payments (AP2) team, to break down the new Agent payments protocol to finally let your agents securely transact in the real world. Join the conversation on social media with the hashtag #TheAgentFactory. Want to build production-ready agents? Don't miss an episode! Subscribe to The Agent Factory → https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIivdWyY5sqLXR1eSkiM5bE6pFlXC-OSs In this episode you will learn: 1️⃣ Why autonomous agents and current payment infrastructures are incompatible. 2️⃣ The three core challenges blocking agentic commerce: Authorization, agent error, and accountability. 3️⃣ How a role based architecture separates concerns, letting your Shopping Agent (SA) focus on logic while a specialized Credentials Provider (CP) securely handles payments. 4️⃣ Verifiable Credentials (VCs), and the critical difference between a "Cart Mandate" (for human present transactions) and an "Intent Mandate" (for autonomous, human not present tasks). 5️⃣ Deep dive to AP2 in our Q&A segment with Prateek Dudeja, a PM in the AP2 team. Chapters: 00:00 - Intro 00:28 - Welcome & the problem with AI agent payments 01:07 - The "Crisis of Trust" 01:43 - Introducing: The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) 02:07 - Guest introduction: Pratik Duda 02:29 - The 3 challenges: Authorization, agent error & accountability 03:44 - How this relates to MCP & A2A protocols 04:33 - Key concept: A role based ecosystem 06:15 - Key innovation: verifiable credentials (VCs) 06:32 - The 3 types of mandates (Cart, Intent, Payment) 08:03 - The "Contractual Conversational Model" 08:29 - Walkthrough: Human present scenario (Concert tickets) 11:54 - The flow of trust: Allow lists & future standards 13:07