How to accept AI payments in your store

What is an AI payment?

An AI payment is a purchase an AI agent completes on a person's behalf. Three things travel with it: proof of which agent is acting, proof of what the person authorized (a mandate, such as a cart and spending limit), and a payment credential scoped to that agent. None of the three gives you a checked ID or a live face check.

The AI payment protocols, in plain English

Seven standards and network programs set out how an agent identifies itself, finds your products, proves what the person approved and pays you. None of them checks the person's ID or face for you.

How to accept payments from an AI agent API

You accept agent payments through your existing checkout and processor, then add a person check that runs only when your risk rules call for it. These seven steps cover a Shopify store or a custom stack.

1. Expose checkout to agents. On Shopify, Agentic Storefronts and the Checkout MCP server do this. On a custom stack, implement UCP checkout sessions or the ACP checkout API, or use a plugin that does.
2. Read the agent's identity. Log the agent profile on every request (Google sends a UCP-Agent profile header) and verify request signatures where the agent provides them.
3. Accept tokenized credentials. Route agent payment tokens through your processor's payment handler. You never handle raw card data.
4. Run your risk rules before you capture. Value, first order, product type, agent reputation.
5. Verify the person when a rule fires. Create a deepidv session and send the verification link back through the agent or to the customer directly. The request is a POST to https://api.deepidv.com/v1/sessions with your x-api-key header and the workflowId of a workflow built from steps such as ID_VERIFICATION, FACE_LIVENESS and AGE_ESTIMATION. The response includes the session_url; set sendEmailInvite and sendPhoneInvite to false when the agent delivers the link.
6. Fulfill on the webhook. Ship when the session.status.verified webhook arrives; hold on session.status.rejected or session.status.failed.
7. Store the evidence. Keep the mandate and the verification receipt with the order.

curl -X POST https://api.deepidv.com/v1/sessions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "firstName": "Jane",
    "lastName": "Smith",
    "email": "jane.smith@example.com",
    "phone": "+14165557890",
    "sendEmailInvite": false,
    "sendPhoneInvite": false,
    "workflowId": "your-workflow-id"
  }'

Who carries the risk when an agent pays?

Mostly you. A dispute on an agent order still counts against your chargeback ratio, and a customer can claim the agent bought something they never wanted. Some retailers now say in their terms that a purchase by an authorized agent counts as the customer's own purchase. Network mandates help prove what was authorized; a verification receipt proves who authorized it.

Verification turns an agent payment into a known customer

An agent order with a verified person behind it is a customer you know. deepidv verifies once with ID and a live face check, then reuses that result on later orders, so repeat agent purchases stay fast. A 1:N face match stops one person running many agents across many accounts.