PayPal & Google: AI Shopping Bots Will Use Crypto for Payments

Imagine a future where your AI assistant does your shopping for you. According to PayPal and Google, that future will run on cryptocurrency.

At a major tech conference in Miami, executives from both companies explained why AI agents (computer programs that can act on your behalf) will need to use crypto instead of traditional money. The reason is simple: AI bots can't open bank accounts.

"An agent cannot get a bank account. It's not hard, it just is impossible," said Richard Widmann from Google Cloud. This is because banks require human identity verification that computer programs simply can't provide.

Key developments: • Google has created a new payment system called AP2 (Agentic Payments Protocol) with over 120 partners including PayPal • PayPal found that 95% of online stores already see AI bot traffic, but only 20% are ready to sell to them • PayPal's digital dollar called PYUSD (a stablecoin - cryptocurrency that maintains a steady value) could become a major payment method for AI agents

May Zabaneh from PayPal compared this shift to when shopping moved from physical stores to websites. Just as merchants had to build online stores for human customers, they now need to create machine-readable catalogs (product listings that AI can understand) for bot customers.

The big picture: As AI assistants become more common, they'll need a way to pay for things. Since they can't use traditional bank accounts, cryptocurrency offers a solution that both humans and AI can use together.

This is an AI-generated summary. Read the original article at: https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/05/10/agentic-commerce-will-run-on-crypto-rails-paypal-and-google-reps-tell-consensus-miami