Some banks and other payment players lament how agentic commerce has steamrolled ahead without “rules of the road” for liability issues.

His son purchased a new red coat, in the wrong size as it turned out, using social media company Meta Platforms’ Muse personal agent, Fowler recalled last week in an interview.

“I don’t know why you want a red coat, but more a red coat that doesn’t fit you and … who’s liable for that?” Fowler said on Oct. 19, recounting the conversation with his son, one of “the early 20-year-olds in my house who are on the front foot” of agentic-powered shopping.

For Fowler, the ill-fitting red coat symbolizes an array of issues confronting the industry in a new era of agentic payments as consumers direct their personal agents to shop for them. The formulation of corporate policies and federal legislation to address topics such as liability, data access and consumer intent has sorely lagged the pace of agent technology, he said on the sidelines of the annual Money20/20 financial technology conference.

“What do you need to have in place to ensure that the least-informed consumer actually understands the commitments they’re making, and that we are very clear on the relationship between human and authorization,” said Fowler, a former BMO Financial Group banker who leads EWS. “That’s where the rubber meets the road.”

With consumers beginning to tap artificial intelligence agents to shop and make payments , the banking industry is increasingly edgy about risks associated with bot traffic inside customers’ accounts.

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