Nexi Group Joins Agentic Commerce Alliance to Shape the Future of AI-Driven Commerce

WHY THIS MATTERS: The entry of a major European payment processor like Nexi into the Agentic Commerce Alliance marks a crucial step in the evolution of embedded commerce. The future of digital transactions is not just about faster payments, but about payments becoming an invisible, secure layer within the broader functionality of autonomous agents. As AI is tasked with executing increasingly complex, context-aware purchases on behalf of consumers and businesses, the need for a universally accepted, vendor-neutral standard becomes paramount. Without this, the transactional layer risks fragmentation and insecurity, which ultimately hinders merchant adoption and consumer trust. Nexi’s commitment to securing this layer, leveraging their scale and local knowledge, elevates the ACA’s efforts from a theoretical discussion to a practical framework for establishing trusted payment rails for AI-driven commerce. This is a foundational move that dictates whether the next wave of automation will truly empower all merchants or simply become another walled garden.

Nexi Group, the European PayTech, announced it has joined the Agentic Commerce Alliance (ACA), the world’s only open initiative dedicated to ensuring agent-driven commerce remains accessible, secure, and beneficial for merchants of all sizes.

The Agentic Commerce Alliance brings together leading innovators to define how autonomous agents interact and collaborate in real commercial environments. As a member, Nexi will bring European scale, local payment knowledge and real-world experience in securing the transactional layer for AI agents to help develop open standards that enable trustworthy, interoperable agentic systems.

“Agentic commerce has enormous transformative potential, which can only be unlocked through an open, interoperable ecosystem built on common standards,” said Roberto Catanzaro, Chief Business Officer of Merchant Solutions at Nexi Group. “Nexi is committed to creating secure payment experiences for AI-driven commerce worldwide, evidenced through our work with key players including Google, Mastercard and Visa, ensuring that every agent-led purchase reflects real consumer intent.

“Joining the ACA further strengthens our commitment to European merchants and deepens our collaboration with global partners, ensuring the next generation of automated commerce tools empowers businesses to thrive in the new digital economy.”

Commerce is entering a new phase. While AI has supported workflows through recommendations and predictions, a new generation of autonomous agents can now understand context, coordinate across systems, and carry out meaningful tasks on behalf of merchants and buyers. However, without shared standards and open interoperability, autonomous agents cannot operate safely and consistently across systems, channels, and workflows.

The Agentic Commerce Alliance addresses this challenge by creating vendor-neutral, open standards that enable agents to work across platforms while respecting merchant control. The Alliance’s principles emphasize human-first trust, customer-centricity, vendor neutrality, openness by default, interoperability by design, and global accessibility.

The Agentic Commerce Alliance operates on principles of openness and shared intelligence. It was initiated by Shopware as a natural extension of years of open commerce architecture and applied AI development.

“Without open standards, discovery and choice risk being controlled by closed platforms. With them, agents can recognize trust, service, and expertise – ensuring merchants of all sizes remain visible, maintain direct customer relationships, and stay competitive,” said Stefan Hamann, CEO of Shopware and Agentic Commerce Alliance
initiator.

FF NEWS TAKE: This collaboration unequivocally moves the needle. It signals that established financial infrastructure players recognize AI-driven commerce as a non-negotiable future, not a niche experiment. Nexi’s focus on the European market brings immediate gravity to the push for open, interoperable standards. We should now watch for the tangible framework details that emerge from the ACA and, critically, how quickly other global payment titans follow suit. The security and openness of the payment infrastructure for these new agents will determine the speed of the whole industry’s shift.