Agentic commerce is already operating inside live retail, payments, and platform environments. For Partnership Managers across e-commerce platforms and the Financial Services industry, the focus in 2026 is less about capability and more about control.
As AI agents take on delegated authority to research, select, and complete transactions, the underlying question becomes harder to ignore. When software initiates an action, how does a platform prove that the decision was authorised by a real person, within agreed limits, and with clear accountability?
The answer is identity.
Most digital commerce systems are still designed around behavioural inference. Click patterns, device signals, session flows, and historical activity are used to determine whether an action appears legitimate.
That approach weakens when agents act asynchronously, operate across platforms, and transact without direct human interaction. An agent can behave consistently while still acting outside the authority originally granted to it. Familiar patterns no longer guarantee authorised outcomes.
In agent-led environments, platforms need stronger proof. They need to know who authorised an action, what authority was granted, and whether the agent stayed within those boundaries when it acted.
Behaviour can signal risk. It cannot carry accountability.
Agentic commerce introduces a structural requirement that existing commerce systems were not built to handle. Authority has to be explicit, enforceable, and attributable at the moment an agent acts.
That requirement separates three credentials that agent-led transactions rely on.
Payment credentials authorise the movement of funds. These already exist in tokenised form across cards, accounts, and wallets. In agentic commerce, they need to be enforced against delegated limits, not just ownership.
Identity credentials prove who the human principal behind an agent is. Agents can be instantiated, replaced, or delegated tasks. Identity has to persist independently of the software executing the action.
Intention credentials define what an agent is allowed to do on someone’s behalf. Spending caps, merchant restrictions, time limits, and delegation scopes set the enforceable boundaries within which an agent can act.
Together, these credentials replace inference with proof and assumption with accountability.
OneID® can issue certified identity credentials that bind an agent’s actions back to a verified individual. Our role will be to prove who is behind a decision and whether that person authorised the action within defined limits, rather than directing or interpreting the agent’s behaviour.
In large-scale platform and financial services environments, identity credentials can provide a consistent way to establish accountability when agents initiate transactions, regardless of which agent software or interface is involved.
“Agentic commerce only works when trust between parties is proven. At OneID, we don’t just verify who an agent is acting for - we bind identity, authority, and intent into a single, provable transaction. That means liability doesn’t sit with the retailer, the platform, or the AI agent. It sits exactly where it should: with the verified individual or organisation that authorised the action. This is what allows agent-led transactions to scale safely, legally, and with confidence.”
Karl MacGregor, CEO at OneID®
Agentic commerce makes delegation unavoidable. People act in different roles and grant authority accordingly. A parent, a manager, or a partner may delegate limited powers to an agent or another person for specific purposes.
That delegation must be explicit, scoped, revocable, and auditable.
OneID®'s approach centres on verified identities which have delegations and permissions. Agents operate within defined autonomy limits. If those limits are exceeded, control returns to the human. Each action can be traced back to who authorised it, under what conditions, and for how long.
For platforms, this creates clearer boundaries around who authorised an action and within what limits, reducing ambiguity when agents operate across services and partners. For financial services, it supports auditability, clearer liability attribution, and regulatory confidence as agent-led transactions become routine.
For Partnership Managers, agentic commerce changes the shape of platform risk.
Unauthorised agent actions create exposure across merchants, platforms, and payment providers. Behavioural controls alone struggle to demonstrate that a transaction was properly authorised. Payment networks and major platforms are already publishing frameworks that emphasise mandates, scoped permissions, and cryptographic proof of intent.
Identity credentials that support ongoing verification, delegated authority, and audit trails are becoming foundational infrastructure.
OneID®'s focus on certified identity and permissions enables partners to support agent-initiated commerce while maintaining confidence in who is accountable when something goes wrong.
Agentic commerce promises speed, convenience, and scale. Delivering on that promise depends on trust models that match the reality of delegated, automated action.
In 2026, identity becomes an active control layer inside agent-led transactions. Platforms that embed identity, permissions, and auditability into their agentic workflows will be better positioned to partner, comply, and scale as agentic commerce becomes part of everyday digital operations.
“As agent-led transactions become routine, trust can’t sit in the background. Identity has to be tightly bound to the payments and permissions, from the moment an action is taken.”
Keith Mabbitt, CCO at OneID®
If you’re exploring how agentic commerce will impact your platform or financial ecosystem, and how certified identity credentials can support it, speak to OneID®'s partnerships team to continue the conversation.