The rise of 'agentic finance' is transforming the financial landscape, with AI agents executing transactions and making crypto the backbone of machine-driven economies. In this article, Vincent Chok from First Digital explores the growth of AI agents, their evolving roles, and the importance of crypto in facilitating autonomous financial transactions. We also pose questions to leading AI models, Grok, Gemini, and Claude, about AI payment use cases and the necessary steps for scalability. The explosive growth of AI agents is evident, with 79% of companies already adopting them in some form.
Initially used for advisory roles, AI systems are now actively planning, deciding, and acting on predefined parameters, including financial transactions. This shift is driving the formation of 'agentic finance,' a new paradigm where AI agents execute financial actions within predefined rules. Agentic finance can be understood in three layers: agentic commerce, agentic payments, and asset management. While AI agents lack direct access to global banking rails, crypto offers a solution, providing programmable, always-on money, instant and global settlement, and permissionless access to funds.
Stablecoins, blockchains, and crypto wallets form a financial layer suited to machine-driven activity, making crypto the infrastructure for autonomous systems. Early implementations of AI agents are already visible, with use cases including machine-to-machine payments, autonomous commerce, and trading agents. However, despite the momentum, there are risks and limitations, particularly around security, authorization, liability, and regulatory treatment.
Regulatory clarity is crucial for building trust and widespread adoption. Over the next twelve months, the technology will continue to grow and mature, with signals including growth in agent-driven transaction volume, emergence of agent-native wallets and payments protocols, and deeper integration between stablecoins and AI-driven systems. In conclusion, AI agents are not a theoretical concept but are already executing transactions in limited environments. As the trend develops, crypto is increasingly emerging as the financial backend for machine-driven economies, and advisors should track it as a next-wave driver of crypto utility.