Online shopping is about to get a major shake-up, maybe the biggest one since we all started buying things on our phones. For years, AI has been the quiet assistant in the background of our e-commerce experience, suggesting products we might like or personalizing the ads in our feeds. But that’s changing. AI is moving from the back room to the driver’s seat, and it’s starting to do the actual buying for us.
This isn’t some far-off sci-fi idea. It’s happening now, thanks to a big move from OpenAI and Stripe. They’ve teamed up to launch an "Instant Checkout" feature right inside ChatGPT, and it’s all built on a new open standard they call the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP).
Think about it. You need to buy a birthday gift for a friend who loves hiking. Instead of opening ten different browser tabs, you just tell ChatGPT, "Find me a waterproof, lightweight jacket under $200 from a brand that uses sustainable materials, and have it delivered by Friday." The AI doesn’t just give you a list of links. It finds the perfect jacket, shows you the price and details, and handles the entire purchase for you. You never even leave the chat.
A view of the ChatGPT interface where a user could interact with the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe to make a purchase.That’s the exact future the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe collaboration is designed for. In this post, we’re going to pull back the curtain on what this protocol is, how it actually works, what it means for businesses like yours, and what you can start doing today to get ready.
What is the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe?
Before we dive into the protocol itself, let’s quickly clear up what "agentic commerce" means. It sounds a bit technical, but the idea is simple: it’s when an AI agent (like ChatGPT) acts on your behalf to find, compare, and buy things without you having to manually click through every step. You give the instruction, and the agent does the legwork.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) is the shared language that makes this all possible. It’s an open-source rulebook that lets AI agents, online stores, and payment systems all talk to each other safely and reliably. Think of it like HTML for the web. You don’t have to build a different version of your website for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox because they all agree to read the same language (HTML). ACP aims to do the same for AI-driven shopping.
This standard was co-developed by Stripe and OpenAI to solve a huge potential headache. Without a standard, every business would have to build a custom integration for every single AI agent that pops up. You’d need one for ChatGPT, one for Google’s agent, one for Meta’s, and so on. It would be a chaotic mess. The philosophy behind ACP is "build it once, and let any agent connect to you."
Here’s what makes it tick:
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It’s an open standard. The protocol is completely open source under an Apache 2.0 license. This is a big deal because it means anyone can adopt it for free. Whether you’re a small Shopify store or a massive enterprise, you can use ACP to make your business "agent-ready" without paying licensing fees.
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You’re still the merchant. A key design choice is that businesses remain the "merchant of record." This means you keep full control over your brand identity, the customer relationship, and all your fulfillment and return processes. The AI agent is just a new doorway to your store; it doesn’t become the store itself. You’re not just another listing on a giant, faceless marketplace.
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It’s built for security. Trust is everything in commerce, and ACP is designed with that in mind. The protocol uses secure tokens, like Stripe’s new Shared Payment Token, to pass payment details. The AI agent can kick off the payment, but it never actually sees or stores the customer’s raw credit card number.
How the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe works
So, how does an AI actually buy something? The protocol lays out a clear, predictable dance between a few key players. It might seem technical under the hood, but the concept is pretty straightforward.
The four key players in a transaction
To really get it, you first need to know the cast of characters involved in any purchase made through the ACP.
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The Buyer: This is us, the human with a need. We start the whole process with a simple request, like, "I need to re-order my usual coffee beans."
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The AI Agent: This is the AI doing the work, like ChatGPT. It understands your request, finds the right product on the right site, talks to the business’s systems, and gets the checkout process rolling on your behalf.
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The Business (Merchant): This is the online store. Your backend systems get the order request from the agent, process it using your existing e-commerce platform, and handle the packing and shipping just like you would with any other order.
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The Payment Provider: This is the service that handles the money, like Stripe. It’s responsible for creating a secure, one-time-use token that the agent uses to authorize the payment without ever touching the sensitive financial data.
A peek under the hood: The checkout process
The actual transaction is a logical back-and-forth of API calls that makes sure everyone is on the same page from start to finish.
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Kicking things off: The AI agent pings the business’s API with a "CreateCheckoutRequest". This is the virtual equivalent of the agent walking into the store and saying, "I’d like to start a purchase."
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Getting on the same page: The business’s system replies with the current state of the checkout, almost like a digital receipt. It includes the items in the cart, the total price with taxes, and the available shipping options. The agent then shows this to you, the buyer, to make sure it all looks right.
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Making a change: What if you want to switch to express shipping? You tell the agent, and it sends an "UpdateCheckoutRequest" to the business’s system to make that change. The system updates the total and sends the new state back.
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Paying up: Once you give the final "yep, looks good," the agent requests a secure payment token from the payment provider. It then bundles that token up and sends it to the business in a "CompleteCheckoutRequest".
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All done: The business takes that token and uses it to process the payment through its payment provider. Once it’s approved, the business sends a final order confirmation back to the agent, which then lets you know your order is complete.
What this means for your business
Okay, that’s the "what" and the "how." But what does this actually mean for someone running an online business? This protocol isn’t just a cool piece of tech; it has very real implications for how you’ll find and serve customers.
The opportunity: A new, frictionless sales channel
The upside here is pretty clear. Agentic commerce creates a brand-new way to reach people and make sales, one that feels almost effortless for the customer.
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Be where your customers are. People are already using tools like ChatGPT to research products and get advice. ACP lets you turn that moment of discovery into a sale, right then and there. It transforms a research tool into a powerful new storefront for your brand.
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Smooth out the buying process. Think about all the steps in a typical online purchase: click a link, land on a new site, find the "add to cart" button, go to the checkout page, fill in your name, address, and credit card info… It’s a lot of clicks, and every single one is a chance for a potential customer to get distracted and leave. The "Instant Checkout" experience removes nearly all of that friction.
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Keep control of your brand. This isn’t like selling on a third-party marketplace where your products are sandwiched between competitors and the marketplace owns the customer relationship. The ACP framework is designed to let you keep your customer data, manage your own shipping, and maintain the unique brand experience you’ve worked so hard to build.
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It’s not just for B2C. While the initial examples are consumer-focused, the potential for B2B is huge. Experts in B2B commerce are already pointing out how this technology could streamline procurement. Imagine a company’s AI agent that automatically reorders office supplies when they run low, requests quotes from approved vendors, or even manages complex purchasing workflows.
The challenge: Getting your systems ready for AI buyers
This all sounds great, but there’s a catch. To take advantage of this opportunity, your business needs to be ready to talk to machines, not just humans browsing a website.
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You need infrastructure, not just a storefront. An AI agent doesn’t care how pretty your website is. It doesn’t see your carefully chosen fonts or beautiful product photos. It interacts with your business through APIs. This means your backend needs to be "machine-readable" from the ground up.
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Structured data is king. An agent can’t figure out your return policy from a flowery paragraph on your FAQ page or pull product specs from a messy PDF catalog. It needs clean, organized, structured data about your products, pricing, real-time inventory levels, and shipping policies, all served up through an API.
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Everything has to be real-time. When an agent asks, "Do you have this medium blue shirt in stock?" it needs an answer instantly. If your inventory system only updates once a day, you’re going to have a problem. Your systems need to be built API-first and respond in milliseconds. For many businesses, building and maintaining this kind of infrastructure is a serious engineering project.
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Don’t forget about support. The need for structured data doesn’t stop after the sale. If a customer uses an AI agent to ask, "Where is my order?" your support systems need to be just as prepared. This is where many businesses hit a wall. Critical information is often scattered everywhere, in help centers like Zendesk, past support tickets, internal wikis on Confluence, and random Google Docs.
Overhauling your entire e-commerce backend for ACP is a big lift. But you can start tackling the parallel challenge of agentic customer support today. Tools like eesel AI are built specifically to connect to all your existing, messy knowledge sources and unify them. This powers an AI support agent that can give customers instant answers without you having to rebuild your entire knowledge base from scratch.
How to get your business ready
Preparing for this future doesn’t mean you have to drop everything and hire a team of API developers tomorrow. You can take small, practical steps right now to get your house in order.
Step 1: Start structuring your data
The single most important thing you can do is to start organizing your data. AI runs on data, and the cleaner it is, the better any AI will perform, whether it’s for commerce or for support.
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Start thinking in terms of feeds and APIs, not just marketing copy and PDFs. For every product, document its attributes (size, color, material, dimensions) in a consistent format.
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Do the same for your support knowledge. Document the answers to your most common customer questions in a clear, structured way. This information will be gold for any AI you implement down the line.
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<protip text="A great starting point is to create an internal "source of truth" for both product specs and common customer issues. Even if it's just a well-organized spreadsheet to start, it's a huge step toward being machine-readable.">
Step 2: Build for integration, not just presentation
Your website is still your digital flagship for human visitors, but going forward, it can’t be the only way to interact with your business.
Actually implementing the Agentic Commerce Protocol is a developer-heavy task. It involves building and maintaining a series of REST endpoints and webhooks that adhere to the official spec. It’s a long-term, strategic investment in your technical foundation.
But while your engineering team is mapping that out, your customer support team can get the benefits of an “agentic” approach in a matter of minutes. With eesel AI, you can use one-click integrations to connect your existing helpdesk (like Zendesk or Freshdesk) and all your other knowledge sources. You can set it up yourself and even run a simulation to see how effectively it would resolve thousands of your past tickets. It’s a fantastic, low-risk way to dip your toes into the world of AI automation.
| Feature | Preparing for Agentic Commerce Protocol | Implementing Agentic Support with eesel AI |
|---|---|---|
| Setup Time | Months of developer work | Go live in minutes |
| Required Skills | API development, backend engineering | No-code, self-serve setup |
| Integration | Build custom REST endpoints & webhooks | One-click integrations for helpdesks & docs |
| Testing | Requires building a sandbox environment | Built-in simulation on historical tickets |
| Initial Cost | Significant engineering investment | Free to start, with predictable monthly plans |
This video explains the Agentic Commerce Protocol, built with Stripe, which powers the new instant checkout feature in ChatGPT.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe era is here
The partnership between the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe and OpenAI teams is more than just a slick new checkout button. It’s a signpost pointing to a major shift in how we buy and sell things online. AI is graduating from being a research assistant to being an active participant in commerce.
The businesses that start preparing for this world of machine-to-machine interaction, both in how they sell their products and how they support their customers, are going to have a serious head start. The whole journey begins with making your business’s data and processes structured, accessible, and ready for AI.
While you’re planning your long-term commerce strategy, you can get a quick win by bringing agentic AI to your customer support. eesel AI lets you deploy a smart AI agent that uses the tools and knowledge you already have, with no developers needed. Why not start a free trial and see how many customer tickets you could automate in the next ten minutes?
Frequently asked questions
The Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe is an open-source standard co-developed by OpenAI and Stripe that allows AI agents to securely and reliably make purchases on behalf of users. It acts as a shared language, enabling online stores and payment systems to interact directly with AI agents without custom integrations.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe uses secure tokens, like Stripe’s Shared Payment Token, to process payments. This means the AI agent can initiate and authorize the payment, but it never actually sees or stores your raw credit card number, enhancing security.
Businesses integrating with the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe gain a frictionless new sales channel, allowing AI agents to make instant purchases. This helps them reach customers where they are, smooth out the buying process, and maintain control over their brand and customer relationships.
To be compatible with the Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe, businesses primarily need machine-readable infrastructure built on APIs, structured product and policy data, and real-time inventory systems. This moves beyond just a pretty storefront to a robust, integrated backend.
The Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe is an open standard under an Apache 2.0 license, making it accessible for free to businesses of all sizes, from small Shopify stores to large enterprises. This open approach encourages broad adoption without licensing fees.
The most crucial first step is to start structuring your data, both for products and customer support knowledge. Clean, organized, and machine-readable data is foundational for any AI implementation, making your business "agent-ready" for Agentic Commerce Protocol Stripe and other AI tools.
