Is the internet ready for AI agents to take over our wallets and run their own businesses? In this episode of The MAD Podcast, Stripe's Emily Sands reveals how agentic commerce is rapidly shifting from a hypothetical concept to deployed financial infrastructure. From combating the rising existential threat of token theft to solving the bottleneck of "vibe deployment", Emily unpacks the shared payment tokens and real-time billing systems required to securely scale autonomous digital buyers and highlights a near future where agents operate as independent, end-to-end micro-firms.

(00:00) — Cold open & Intro

(01:24) — The rise of agentic e-commerce

(02:11) — The spectrum of agent-led purchases

(03:16) — How merchants adapt to AI-driven commerce

(05:50) — Defining the levels of autonomy in AI shopping

(07:08) — What is the Agent E-Commerce Protocol (AEP)?

(08:49) — Shared payment tokens and secure AI transactions

(09:58) — Who is adopting the Agent E-Commerce Protocol?

(11:38) — Can agents negotiate and sell products?

(13:32) — The macroeconomic impact of AI agents

(14:46) — The boom of solopreneurs and AI-driven business creation

(16:56) — Why building trust is the biggest roadblock for AI commerce

(20:19) — How link wallets improve payment security

(21:21) — Improving the user experience in AI shopping apps

(23:16) — How the Link Wallet sets guardrails for AI agents

(25:40) — One-time use virtual cards vs flexible AI wallets

(28:03) — Unpacking the shared payment token primitive

(29:59) — How stablecoins enable profitable AI microtransactions

(35:03) — Managing liability: Who is at fault if an agent goes haywire?

(36:38) — Why agent payments might be safer than human transactions

(37:41) — What is Vibe Deployment?

(40:13) — Why Stripe built Stripe Projects for agent deployment

(41:22) — Why Stripe cares about orchestrating app deployments

(42:50) — How tokens break the traditional SaaS billing model

(44:34) — Why AI companies are moving to hybrid and usage-based billing

(47:15) — Streaming payments and real-time token tracking

(48:42) — The massive data challenge for AI company accountants

(50:41) — Token theft: The fastest-growing fraud in the AI economy

(52:04) — The cottage industry of free trial and multi-account abuse

(54:16) — How fraudsters monetize stolen AI tokens on the dark web

(01:00:06) — How Stripe Radar uses network density to fight AI fraud

(01:01:15) — Tempo's role in the Agent E-Commerce Protocol

(01:04:12) — The AI startup ecosystem is accelerating business creation

(01:09:01) — The token cost shock: Are buyers getting carried away?

(01:11:19) — 2026 Predictions: Agents running businesses end-to-end