Stripe and Microsoft Forge AI-Powered Commerce Infrastructure - The Future of Transactions Arrives

Two tech titans just rewired the digital economy's nervous system. Stripe and Microsoft are launching a new infrastructure layer designed to inject artificial intelligence directly into the bloodstream of global commerce.

The AI Commerce Engine

Forget clunky checkout flows and static pricing models. This partnership aims to deploy AI that predicts cart abandonment before it happens, dynamically personalizes payment options in real-time, and automates fraud detection to near-zero latency. It's infrastructure that thinks—and spends.

Why This Cuts Deep

This isn't another API update. It's a foundational shift. By baking AI directly into the transaction layer, Stripe and Microsoft are positioning to control the logic of how money moves online. They're not just facilitating payments; they're aiming to optimize the entire commercial decision loop from browse to buy.

The Cynical Take

Of course, in the grand finance tradition, it promises efficiency for merchants while quietly building the most valuable asset of all: unprecedented behavioral data on global spending habits. Another case of 'you're not the customer; you're the product'—just with better fraud protection.

The new infrastructure is set to go live, forcing every platform and retailer to ask one question: adapt or get bypassed. The age of passive payment processing is over.

Stripe and Microsoft set to launch infrastructure for AI-driven commerce

New: @Microsoft is launching a shopping experience inside @Copilot, powered by @Stripe.

Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI. We're eager to rethink every part of the existing commerce and financial stack. pic.twitter.com/zqpw3WxLiF

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) January 9, 2026

Stripe explained that the Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard for agentic commerce established by Stripe, will be used to establish a connection with the seller. After the buyer submits their payment information, Stripe will issue a Shared Payment Token, a primitive that will enable payment without disclosing the buyer’s credentials.

After that, the digital payments platform will give the Shared Payment Token to the seller. The fintech firm revealed that as the merchant of record, the seller will maintain control of the data.

“AI is changing how commerce works, and as with every technology shift, it needs new infrastructure. Stripe is building that infrastructure, and Microsoft is putting it to use by enabling commerce inside Copilot.”

–Kevin Miller, head of payments at Stripe.

Nayna Sheth, Head of Product for Agentic Payments at Microsoft, stated that Microsoft is working with Stripe to provide dependable, rapidly evolving infrastructure for AI-driven commerce, enabling smooth product discovery and purchasing in Copilot.

Microsoft and Stripe will collaborate to integrate the Agentic Commerce Suite, a technology that enables companies to make their items discoverable to AI agents. According to Stripe, the suite also allows businesses to manage checkout, fraud protection, and payments through a single integration, facilitating a faster onboarding process for merchants.

Microsoft, Stripe, and PayPal drive AI-powered commerce

Microsoft has been a client of Stripe since it started utilizing the digital payments platform to power payments in 2022. Afterwards, Microsoft used Stripe Connect to manage identity verification and payment acceptance for its marketplace projects.

In the new rollout of Copilot Checkout, Microsoft is also teaming up with PayPal. It is collaborating with Microsoft to power the surfacing of merchant inventory, branded checkouts, guest checkouts, and credit card payments.

Michelle Gill, GM, small business and financial services, PayPal, said PayPal is facilitating smooth, dependable transactions for both customers and merchants by fusing Copilot’s intelligent shopping platform with PayPal’s agentic commerce capabilities.

In addition to the Checkout function, Copilot will provide merchants on the Shopify platform with Brand Agents that are trained on a company’s product catalog. The Brand Agents will enable merchants to respond to in-depth product inquiries and engage in discussions with customers that align with their brand.

The collaboration follows the fintech giant’s recent announcement that it contributed to the development of ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout feature. 

The fintech giant stated that ChatGPT’s Instant Checkout is driven by the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open, merchant-friendly standard that it co-developed with OpenAI. It leverages Stripe’s 15 years of experience in creating infrastructure for international trade.

Stripe announced that, starting from September 29 of last year, U.S. customers of ChatGPT began purchasing products directly from U.S.-based Etsy companies, and eventually, more than a million Shopify merchants, including Glossier, Vuori, Spanx, and SKIMS.

Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s President of Technology and Business, stated that the fintech giant is creating the economic framework for AI, which includes helping companies prosper in the age of agentic commerce.

“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.”

–Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s President of Technology and Business.

Stripe and OpenAI have been collaborating since 2023, when OpenAI began utilizing Stripe Billing and Stripe Checkout for ChatGPT Plus subscriptions, as well as Stripe Radar for fraud detection and LINK for seamless checkout.

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