Why AI Agents Still Won't Pay for Anything — Jan Curn, Apify
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AOxpwVeIWw
AI Engineer · 20 min · 189 sentences · sentence-level transcript from YouTube's caption track; each line begins at the time shown

[00:12] Hello everyone.
[00:15] Welcome to my session , and today I'm going to talk about agency payments, specifically a hot topic since we have all the patent payment protocols.
[00:24] So the main question is: why doesn't anyone use them?
[00:29] Why...why don't agents pay?
[00:31] And before I start, a quick introduction : at API, we run a marketplace of AI tools.
[00:39] We call these tools " actors"; We have about 80,000 of them, and they cover use cases such as data extraction from social media sites, e- commerce, hospitality, travel, search engines, and automation
[00:50] in general.
[00:51] Essentially, they help you automate your online work, and these actors are created by a global community of creators.
[00:59] And they, they, they create them, publish them in our store, and we sell them to users, to customers.
[01:05] And just last month, we paid almost $2 million to creators for their actors, right?
[01:10] So it's like a moving two-way market.
[01:13] So obviously, I think you can see now why we're so interested in magic payments, because for us, it's just another way that we can sell our actors, our tools, and our creators
[01:26] to more people and agents, right?
[01:31] And, uh, so obviously, whenever there was a new, uh, way to integrate our system, our platform, our marketplace to allow agents to buy these tools, we were quick to add those things.
[01:47] So, uh, actually, uh, last year, uh, at the AI ​​ Engineer World Fair in San Francisco, I was the only one who spoke on this topic, on the topic of Asian payments and, uh, the agent economy in a broader
[01:59] sense, because back then it wasn't really, you know, well known, uh; not many people talked about it.
[02:04] And I think in the last year and a half, uh, there's been a lot of progress, right?
[02:09] So, uh, this year, uh , at the AI ​​ Engineer World Fair in San Francisco, there was a special, uh, track , uh, for agency payments.
[02:18] And so, you know, over the last year, I think everyone has realized that Asians are actually going to need a budget to do increasingly long-term tasks, because at some point they're going to ask you to approve something and so on.
[02:32] And if you want them to be autonomous and actually do bigger tasks, you may need to give them money, and there has been tremendous progress in this area in the last year and a half .
[02:44] So, I think Guard is predicting that by 2028, it will be a $15 trillion economy, and that 80% of B2B activity between companies will be done autonomously through agents.
[02:58] I mean, it might be a little too much, but we'll see.
[03:01] But in any case, a lot of players in the financial sector and the fintech financial sector have joined this bandwagon because they understood the scale of this opportunity.
[03:10] So , over the last year and a half, we've seen a lot of different, uh, tools and payment standards emerge .
[03:17] It all started with the L42 from Lightning Labs.
[03:20] It was mid-2020, it was very early, and last year in April, Mastercard's agent payments came out , then in May 2025, X42 from Coinbase.
[03:30] This is probably the most popular agency payment standard at the moment.
[03:35] Last June, uh, KYA pay, uh, Skyfire from Visa.
[03:39] Uh, we have, uh, Asian Payments Protocol, AP2, from Google.
[03:44] Then the Agent E-commerce Protocol, ACP, from OpenAI and Stripe in September last year.
[03:50] Uh, in October, Trusted Agents Protocol, TAP, from Visa.
[03:54] Uh, in January, Universal Commerce Protocol, Universal Commerce Protocol, UCP, from Google and Shopify.
[04:00] There is even more agent commerce: Agent E-commerce Trust Protocol, ACTP, from Alipe; uh, Machine Payments Protocol, MPP, from Stripe and Temple.
[04:11] Uh, this is from the beginning of this year.
[04:14] And, uh, since April, Asian mobile protocol, MMP, AM from Alipe.
[04:20] And, uh, last but not least: Asentic Payment Open Protocol, APOP by Union Pay.
[04:26] Oh, that's not all.
[04:27] Uh, OKX, OKX's agent payment protocol.
[04:32] So you can see that this has become a hot battleground for the future of agent e-commerce because all of these players understand that agents are going to pay at some point, and these companies really want to be a part of this new future, and, uh, preferably leverage
[04:48] their networks and existing infrastructure to do so.
[04:52] Oh, another agent payment machine from Mastercard.
[04:56] So, there are a lot of players, and it's very difficult to keep track of all the new standards that are emerging now.
[05:03] Uh , and I think this whole agency business has become huge, uh, huge, uh, well, big news for cryptocurrencies because finally, uh, it seems like there's a real use case that
[05:17] they've been waiting for, you know, for cryptocurrencies, other than, uh, buying illegal substances and hiding money from your spouse.
[05:26] And I actually think that, like, I'm not a crypto lover myself, I'm not hiding anything, I do n't own any cryptocurrency, but, uh , I think that cryptocurrency actually has a very, very good chance, uh, of winning
[05:38] this agency fee war because, uh, cryptocurrency, like, if done right, it doesn't have a single owner, there's no one company that controls the ecosystem , right?
[05:47] And, you have, and, uh, it has properties that make it very useful for agency payments.
[05:53] So if you compare cryptocurrency, for example, to credit cards, PayPal or PayPal micropayments, or, you know, bank debit, it's much cheaper, you just can't use these traditional payment methods for small agency transactions.
[06:09] It simply does n't make economic sense.
[06:11] And also, uh, traditional payment methods, uh, also have chargebacks, and anyone who sells online understands that, uh, you have to consider that some people will just abuse your services and then demand a
[06:24] refund, and that's just, you know, a way of life for an online business.
[06:29] But you can't do that in the agency world because there are an infinite number of agents and they just want to steal all your money or take your services for free.
[06:39] So, uh, there are no chargebacks in cryptocurrency , only refunds, but they are optional for sellers.
[06:46] So I think cryptocurrency is really well suited for agency payments, and that's, uh, a bright future for you.
[06:53] And actually the two, sorry, two of the biggest players, uh, or the two most popular agency payment standards that are currently being explored, Coinbase and Stripe, uh, mpp, uh, on stable coin pass, are actually
[07:05] similar to using cryptocurrency, right ?
[07:09] And this is not surprising, so let's look at the implementation of these two systems in the real world.
[07:17] This is from the websites X42 scan and MPPP scan, which basically track transactions on the blockchain.
[07:25] And you can see that in the last 30 days, uh, in the last 30 days, uh, on X42, the payment volume was only about $1 million , and on MPP, only about
[07:37] $1.5 thousand.
[07:38] I mean, it's practically nothing.
[07:41] Uh, it's like it doesn't exist.
[07:42] So the question is, where is everyone ?
[07:44] Why doesn't anyone use this?
[07:45] It's been over a year and a half , uh, since agency payments became a reality, but agents still aren't using them.
[07:55] So let's try to find the answer to this question.
[07:59] So, firstly, there may be a low supply of services.
[08:02] Maybe there just aren't many things for agents to buy autonomously.
[08:06] Well, I don't think so, because if you look at these agency fee directories, there are a lot of services out there, and I would say our company, Exa, Perplexity, and Farcru–they're all there, and I would say that we collectively make a lot more, you know, than a million dollars a month from agents using
[08:25] our services, right?
[08:27] So it's clear that agents are using these tools, paying a lot more for it , but through API keys, not through autonomous discovery and payment.
[08:36] So it must be demand, right?
[08:38] So it's obvious that agents are simply not interested, they're not buying the services.
[08:42] So let's try to understand why, okay?
[08:45] And I think the best way to do that is to think of payments as a sales funnel.
[08:49] So it all starts with a need.
[08:52] So first you, as an external participant in the system or the creator of the agent, need to have a need, like, okay, because otherwise you would n't allow it or
[09:01] configure it, and then you need to configure it somehow, and once that's done, once that's done, agents need some way to find services and eventually buy them, right?
[09:10] And I would say that at every step of that funnel, we have some friction points that ultimately lead to agents like that not buying, um, at the end of the funnel.
[09:20] So let's try to look at this in more detail.
[09:24] So, first, the need, well, most people now create agent systems, uh, and they give them access to services.
[09:31] But they, they, they, they do it through fixed, uh, accounts or, you know, accounts with registration, uh; they register earlier and through API keys, right?
[09:40] So you just, like, I don't know, you have an agent, and if you need to give them access to web data, you just create an account on AIfy and, like, then, like, put an API key in your cloud or, you know, through the MCP to connect to the services, and then you pay for the
[09:57] services through your credit card, right?
[09:59] It's pretty simple.
[10:01] Anyone can do it , right?
[10:03] So it's not really like agency payments compete with Visa.
[10:09] They compete with API keys because it's simply a more convenient way.
[10:13] So what needs to happen for agents or people to really , like, decide, " Okay, I want my agent to not just use a fixed set of services that I, you know, provided them with before, but, like, I want my agent to also
[10:26] discover new services as they go along and buy them on their own," right?
[10:32] So I think there are several prerequisites for this.
[10:35] Firstly, these are better models.
[10:37] What I mean is that as models improve, agents can perform each longer task autonomously; you trust them more, etc. So it's kind of a natural progression, and I think that over time, uh, models, if they don't already have it, will
[10:51] be trustworthy, with money too.
[10:53] And I think you can start by giving them, I don't know, $5 for a job, and then 50, and if you know it works, you can do 500.
[10:59] And I would say that people already trust agents, uh, access to their systems, uh, even the right access, quite often, and sometimes, uh, it leads to disasters or, you know , data leaks.
[11:08] It's safer with money.
[11:10] I mean, for example, if you lose $50, that's sad, but it's not a disaster like you have, unless someone posts your email, which is much worse.
[11:18] So, I think it's already progressing, the models are getting better, and people will have more trust in them to buy services.
[11:25] But I think the big unblocker will come with the always- available agents that we've seen, like with Metamuse, you know, Open Eye Dot, etc. I think personal, always-on agents are becoming a reality, and if you want those agents to actually do anything, you're going to end up giving them a budget.
[11:42] So I think we are reaching that stage as well.
[11:45] And I think the end of the era of token subsidies will also help a lot.
[11:50] Now for $100 a month on Claude you can buy tokens worth, I don't know, about $14,000 if you spend the maximum.
[11:57] This is crazy because then agents have no incentive to look for existing services, since they can create anything from scratch because it costs nothing.
[12:06] But I think at some point it will end, maybe with an open AAI rather than an entropic IPO, and suddenly agents will be okay, maybe it will be more economical for me to buy the service than to build it from scratch or find a way to implement it.
[12:19] So I think it's kind of like the unlocking is already happening, and then the second step is the sales funnel is set up.
[12:25] Okay, I want to use this now.
[12:27] How do I do this?
[12:28] I think that for many people, cryptocurrency is still quite opaque.
[12:32] You know, there are a lot of different terms, there are different words and, you know, terms.
[12:35] And, I would say, most people, uh, have n't really tried to set up a crypto wallet on their own, uh.
[12:41] Maybe they use something like Coinbase for trading, but really, if their Asian crypto wallet, you know, it, you know, requires some extra work on their part , and it, it, it's a little more complicated, you know, than, I don't know, using a credit card to pay for services, because everyone already has credit cards.
[12:57] But I think this, this, this too, well, will be resolved soon, or with a better, better user experience.
[13:02] I think agency payment tools are getting better every month, actually.
[13:06] And I think the big unlocking will happen if these major agent payment platforms, you know, like cloud technologies or JGPT, or, you know, these personal agents, if they actually integrate crypto payments
[13:18] directly, right?
[13:19] So essentially, you would just want to use your main account with Cloth and say, "Hey, you can use $50 to buy .services."
[13:26] I think this is going to be a big unlock, and I think it's going to happen sooner rather than later, okay?
[13:31] So, the agent has a crypto wallet or, you know, an agent payment system set up, and they can purchase services.
[13:37] So the main question now is: where, where can he find services he can trust?
[13:42] And trust is important because if you're buying a service from something, from someone, you need to make sure that they're going to provide the service that they promise, they're going to provide it for the price that they, they, they, they say they're going to provide it, right?
[13:53] And if you don't trust, you won't transact with anyone .
[13:56] And historically, how do people build this trust?
[13:59] First they started transactions with people they , they, they knew, right?
[14:03] So they, you know, exchanged favors and then money, but it was someone they knew.
[14:08] So they knew they could be trusted and they would sell them a good thing, or they would trust someone, uh, someone else that they knew and trusted who recommended them.
[14:18] So it's like you asked, "Oh, um, can you recommend a good hairdresser for me?"
[14:22] For example, to your friend, you say, " Okay, you can use this," you know?
[14:27] And then you can trust this person, and everything will be great.
[14:31] And over time, you know, as the world got bigger, people started using a trusted intermediary to tell you who's a good seller and who's not, right?
[14:42] For example, different markets or city squares , where, you know, if someone was selling in the city, you know, in the square, you could probably trust: " Okay, they're
[14:52] honest."
[14:53] And , you know, we have different reviews and different consumer protection agencies and so on.
[15:00] So, essentially, these elements lend credibility to the economy that you can buy services from strangers because there are signals that you can use.
[15:07] But in the world of aging, there is nothing like that .
[15:09] How can you know that, for example, this agent or service at some random URL that claims, “Oh, I have an API for, I don’t know, perfect weather data,” can you trust it?
[15:19] Well, it's quite complicated, but I think the same principle would apply, you know?
[15:24] So, either, like, network, network, or trust, like, "Oh, I know these services are, uh , good," you know?
[15:29] So, essentially, it's a pool that you can use, or, uh, essentially, use verified catalogs and marketplaces.
[15:36] And we already see this happening, for example, uh, cloth, uh , has a connector catalog, right?
[15:42] These are kind of like verified connectors that are actually, like, entropic, like, checked pretty thoroughly.
[15:48] It's hard to get there, you know.
[15:50] Uh, they already provide this level of trust for the catalog of these tools, and the same...They have apps, and, uh, you know, Appi is also a marketplace.
[15:59] So, essentially, there's a trusted intermediary that tells you, "Okay, this is a service you can trust," you know, and you can, you can use it, right?
[16:06] So I think it's already happening.
[16:08] And, uh , again, the big unlock would be if these big agency providers, uh, enabled payments out of the box, you know?
[16:17] Suddenly, I think this would all really start.
[16:20] And the last thing is to buy, right?
[16:22] And you , traditional, these agent payment systems, they only supported this, uh, super simple, uh, use case, and it was kind of a fixed price per API call.
[16:31] But in this world, that's not enough, you know?
[16:33] There are only a certain number of things that can be bought for a fixed price, perhaps the weather forecast.
[16:38] But to do real work, you actually need to, for example, use a payer to run some kind of computational task or some kind of agent task that the LLM itself uses , right?
[16:48] And, uh, you need variable pricing.
[16:51] And, uh, fortunately, just, uh, earlier this year, X42 added this option; it's called batch calculation , and MPP added sessions, uh.
[17:02] And the purpose of these, uh, payment schemes is to enable, uh, agents, you know, to also process this, like paper billing .
[17:09] So let's take a quick look at how, uh, x4 implements the use of a payer, because I think it's a good illustration of what the early adopters went through, you know, to make it work.
[17:19] So let's just take a quick look at how the X42 works.
[17:23] First, as you know, you send an API request.
[17:25] You get a 402 error, uh, with some payment, uh , signature, sorry, header " payment required."
[17:31] You create a signature, repeat the request with a certain amount of money, then the server checks it with an intermediary, which could be, for example, Coinbase.
[17:39] Everything is fine, and then you work there .
[17:42] Well, we'll see, uh, then you settle the transaction, uh.
[17:47] Coinbase , the intermediary, sends the transaction to the blockchain, and the transaction is confirmed.
[17:54] You get a response from the intermediary, and then you know that the money has actually been transferred, and you can get the job done, right?
[18:02] So the risk is that if you get the work done a little early and then the money just doesn't come through, you could lose it.
[18:08] So it depends on your service.
[18:10] Sometimes, uh, you just want to make sure you charge before you actually provide the service, if there are non-trivial costs, maybe you know, some calculations, etc., and then you get a response about the payment.
[18:21] So that's all good, uh, but it's really only for simple scenarios, but handling the use of the payer was quite, uh, a little more complicated, you know.
[18:30] So first in May, uh, exports launched a precise payment scheme.
[18:34] This was the first scheme for fixed pricing and then they promised that we would release a payment scheme up to 100% which would basically allow for variable costing.
[18:45] They released it earlier this year, but unfortunately it didn't quite work for our use case.
[18:49] I'll get to that quickly.
[18:51] And then finally, uh, they implemented the basic settings, uh, in 2026.
[18:55] So the problem with the 100% payment scheme was that while it allowed for a fairly variable cost, there was nothing to stop the buyer, the agent, from spending that money twice, you know, because the transaction was
[19:08] only settled later on the blockchain.
[19:09] So, essentially, the up to 10% scheme wasn't useful for the pay-per- use case, which was a bit of a bummer.
[19:16] So we get around this by using exact and refund.
[19:19] So basically, we charge something like, I don't know, $10 up front, and then, you know, let's say, we consume $2, and once the job is done, we give back the rest.
[19:30] But again, that means agents have to trust the seller, which again brings us back to the original point that sometimes it's complicated, so you have to transact through blockchain, which means more fees and so on.
[19:41] So it wasn't exactly ideal.
[19:42] So finally the rate-based payment scheme solved this problem.
[19:46] We added it recently, I think last week.
[19:49] I don't have time to go into the details, but it uses cryptomagic to sort of escrow money on the blockchain, and then you can charge it, you know, for microtransactions
[20:00] later and final remarks.
[20:02] Uh, I think the agent payment funnel is really starting to take off now.
[20:08] And, uh, soon, uh, the real volumes will begin, and the real beginning of the agency economy .
[20:14] And I think now is the time to figure out how you can sell your services, uh, in this new world, because implementation can be a little more complicated than you think.
[20:22] And if you wait too long, if you wait too long, maybe, uh, you'll miss the train, and that's it.
[20:29] Thank you very much.