Agentic Commerce and the Quiet Return of Guest Checkout

Why It Matters

By removing the human from the checkout loop, agentic commerce reduces abandonment rates while keeping payment networks and issuers in the value chain, reshaping revenue and fraud dynamics across the industry.

Key Takeaways

• Agentic commerce automates product selection and payment execution.
• Guest checkout gains relevance as friction‑free payment model.
• EMVCo SRC 1.5 introduces passkeys for seamless authentication.
• Network tokenisation keeps card data hidden during checkout.
• Banks retain routing control, preserving revenue streams.

Pulse Analysis

The rise of agentic commerce marks a fundamental departure from traditional e‑commerce flows, where shoppers manually navigate carts, enter credentials and approve each step. AI‑powered agents now act on behalf of users, aggregating price data, applying discounts and completing purchases in milliseconds. This automation addresses the persistent friction identified by PYMNTS Intelligence—manual data entry and multi‑step authentication—that continues to drive cart abandonment despite advances in digital wallets. By delegating the checkout decision to software, merchants can achieve higher conversion rates while consumers enjoy a near‑invisible purchasing experience.

Central to this evolution is EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC) version 1.5, which equips guest checkout with enterprise‑grade security without the overhead of account creation. The specification’s introduction of FIDO‑based passkeys eliminates one‑time passwords, enabling biometric or device‑level authentication that agents can invoke across browsers and devices. Combined with network tokenisation and cryptographic binding, SRC ensures that raw card details never surface, aligning perfectly with the device‑agnostic nature of autonomous agents. This technical foundation transforms guest checkout from a fallback option into a primary, compliant payment pathway.

For payment networks and issuing banks, the resurgence of guest checkout is more than a UX improvement; it safeguards their strategic position. SRC retains routing authority and fraud‑management capabilities at the network layer, preventing big‑tech wallets from monopolising transaction data. Consequently, banks can continue to capture interchange fees and leverage tokenised credentials for risk analytics. As commerce becomes increasingly autonomous, the model that minimizes human interaction while preserving network control is likely to dominate, driving both operational efficiency and new revenue opportunities across the payments ecosystem.