AI assistants are starting to shop on our behalf, and Mollie’s early integration with ChatGPT shows how payments providers are adapting to agentic commerce in Europe.
Large language models (LLMs) have become part of everyday life, whether that’s attempting to boost productivity at work, planning a trip, or simply answering a question. Those same tools are also being used to purchase goods and services on behalf of consumers.
If the payments industry is anything to go by, AI-driven purchasing is about to go mainstream. New standards from companies including Klarna, Visa, Google and Stripe are setting up the future for agentic commerce, changing how products are discovered, compared and paid with the same security as in-person.
Speaking to Payment Expert, Bernardo Caldas, Director of Data & AI at Mollie, shares how the company is approaching Europe’s emerging agentic commerce ecosystem, why protocol competition matters, and what AI-driven payments mean for merchants and consumers.
Read the full interview below.
Mollie has become one of the first European PSPs to integrate with ChatGPT. How do you see this shaping Mollie’s role in the emerging AI commerce ecosystem?
Becoming one of the first European PSPs to demonstrate a working ChatGPT payment flow positions Mollie at the centre of the emerging AI commerce landscape. What we’ve built is more than a prototype; it’s the foundation of a new sales channel. By making our infrastructure compatible with OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) before it launches in Europe, we’re ensuring that our 250,000+ customers can benefit from AI-driven commerce from day one. We’re effectively pioneers in the ecosystem.
Ultimately, our role is to remove complexity, anticipate technological shifts, and make sure European businesses are not left behind as AI assistants become a mainstream path to discovery and purchase.
You’ve mentioned readiness for both ACP and competing Agent Payments Protocols. How do you anticipate protocol competition playing out, and what does it mean for merchants?
We expect protocol competition to mirror early e-commerce: rapid experimentation, fragmentation, and eventually consolidation. For merchants, the complexity comes from having to integrate with different protocols, keep up with frequent updates, ensure payments remain secure across platforms, and maintain a seamless customer experience. Navigating all of that shouldn’t be a burden, and that’s exactly why we’re investing now.
Our vision is simple: one Mollie integration that supports multiple AI commerce protocols. Whether it’s ACP or a competing Agent Payments Protocol, merchants shouldn’t need to choose sides. We’re building so they don’t have to. We’ll handle compatibility, security, and updates behind the scenes so businesses can reach customers wherever AI commerce takes shape.
Traditionally, PSPs have worked directly with merchants. Do you expect that relationship to shift, with PSPs increasingly needing to negotiate with LLM providers instead?
LLM providers will absolutely become an important part of the ecosystem, but our relationship with merchants remains the absolute core. Merchants want simplicity: they want to sell wherever their customers are, without managing multiple technical or commercial relationships. And when they hit a challenge, they want excellent customer support. Our job is to integrate our track record of exceptional customer service with the platforms shaping the future – whether that’s ChatGPT, other AI assistants, or emerging agent networks and then abstract that complexity away.
So, while PSPs will interact more with LLM providers, it won’t replace the direct relationship with merchants. Instead, it strengthens our role as their single point of connection to a much larger commerce environment.
From a consumer perspective, what changes when payments happen seamlessly inside an AI chat, and how do you ensure trust and security in that flow?
For consumers, AI-native payments feel like friction disappearing. Discovery, decision and checkout all happen in a single conversational flow: no redirects, no forms, no separate checkout pages.
However, removing steps doesn’t mean compromising trust. Mollie’s delegated payments API brings the same security, fraud prevention and compliance standards we apply across all payment channels. Consumers retain control: strong customer authentication still applies, and trusted wallets like Apple Pay remain part of the flow. The experience becomes seamless, but the safeguards stay intact.
What challenges do you foresee around PSD3, data privacy, or cross‑border compliance when payments are initiated through AI assistants?
AI commerce doesn’t change the regulatory obligations; it changes where they show up. PSD3, GDPR, SCA, AML, and cross-border requirements still apply, but the touchpoints move upstream into the conversational layer.
The challenge is ensuring that the intuitive, natural-language interface consumers expect doesn’t obscure the compliance controls regulators require. Since Mollie already handles complex cross-border payments, authentication flows and data protections, we can bring that experience directly into AI-initiated transactions. Our goal is to make compliance invisible to merchants while ensuring it remains robust behind the scenes.
Looking ahead, do you see AI shopfronts becoming a mainstream sales channel, and how is Mollie preparing its infrastructure and partnerships for that possibility?
We believe AI shopfronts have the potential to become a mainstream commerce channel as consumers grow increasingly comfortable making decisions within conversational interfaces. The combination of personalised recommendations, instant product comparisons, and frictionless checkout creates an experience that is simply more convenient for many shoppers.
At Mollie, we’re preparing for this shift proactively. Our infrastructure is already compatible with emerging AI commerce protocols, something we’ve demonstrated through our fully working ChatGPT payment integration. Our strategy is to support multiple protocols through a single integration, so merchants can adopt AI-driven commerce without needing to rebuild or reconfigure their existing payment setup.
Combined with our large customer base and the strength of our partner ecosystem through Mollie Connect, we’re positioning ourselves to support businesses and platforms the moment AI shopfronts become a significant commercial channel. Our goal is to ensure merchants can take advantage of this new opportunity from day one.
