Philippines e-payments growth sets stage for AI-driven purchases

CEBU, Philippines — The Philippines’ rapid shift to digital payments is setting the stage for the next evolution in online commerce, as artificial intelligence (AI) moves beyond product recommendations toward executing purchases and initiating payments on behalf of consumers.

The country’s digital payments infrastructure has expanded sharply. InstaPay processed a record 4.7 billion transactions in 2025, while QR Ph person-to-merchant payments reached 2.5 billion, reflecting the growing role of electronic transactions in everyday spending.

According to Eng Sheng Guan, chief executive officer of Fiuu, the next challenge for the industry may be ensuring that this expanding digital ecosystem can support a new generation of automated purchases without compromising customer control, transaction security or trust.

Fiuu, is a Southeast Asian payment technology provider that enables businesses to accept and process digital payments across online and physical retail channels.

Known as agentic commerce, the model allows AI tools to act on consumers’ instructions to perform tasks such as reordering products, booking travel or initiating payments within predefined limits.

For Philippine merchants and payment providers, the shift could create new opportunities to streamline transactions, while introducing questions about how authorization should work when customers are no longer involved in every step.

“Customers still need confidence that every transaction is authorised, secure, and reliable,” said Eng.

“As AI plays a greater role in facilitating purchases, the important thing is ensuring that it acts with the customer’s permission and within clearly defined limits,” Eng added

Digital payment adoption creates a foundation

The Philippines has made digital payments an increasingly important part of its retail and services economy, supported by the expansion of instant transfers, QR-based payments and electronic wallets.

That growth provides a potential foundation for AI-driven commerce, which depends on payment systems being able to execute transactions reliably across merchants and platforms. But widespread digital payment use does not automatically mean consumers are ready to delegate purchasing decisions to AI.

A key issue is whether customers can establish clear limits on what an automated agent may do, including how much it can spend, which merchants it can use and when it must seek additional approval.

In a conventional online transaction, consumers typically select a product and confirm payment themselves. Under an agentic model, a customer could instruct an AI tool to buy an item below a specified price or complete a booking when certain conditions are met.

“The first consideration should be customer permission,” Eng said. “Customers need to understand what they are allowing an agent to do and have the ability to change or withdraw those permissions for future purchases.”

For Philippine businesses, the distinction could become particularly relevant as automated purchasing expands across online marketplaces, travel services and recurring digital subscriptions.

If a product exceeds an agreed budget, a preferred option becomes unavailable or booking terms change, merchants and payment providers will need to determine whether the transaction remains within the customer’s instructions or requires a fresh decision.

Security concerns could shape adoption

Consumer confidence remains an important consideration as the Philippines moves toward more automated digital transactions.

A Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) survey found that 55 percent of respondents who did not use digital payments cited a lack of confidence in security as one reason for non-use. The finding highlights a challenge for an industry seeking to expand adoption while introducing increasingly sophisticated payment experiences.

Agentic commerce could add another layer to that challenge. When an AI agent initiates a purchase, consumers need to know not only that their payment credentials are secure but also that the system has acted within the authority they granted.

Payment providers, merchants and technology platforms may need stronger mechanisms to verify authorization, maintain reliable transaction records and establish accountability when several parties participate in completing a purchase.

The goal, however, is not necessarily to require consumers to approve every action manually. Instead, safeguards must operate alongside automated processes, preserving convenience while making transactions traceable and understandable.

Consumers will also need clear ways to dispute transactions and obtain assistance when something goes wrong, particularly when purchases involve multiple merchants, platforms and payment providers.

For the Philippine market, where confidence in digital payments remains relevant to broader adoption, the ability to demonstrate that automated transactions are secure and controllable could prove as important as the technology itself.

Merchants may start with repeat purchases

Businesses in the Philippines do not need to rebuild their payment systems immediately to prepare for agentic commerce. A more practical first step is to identify parts of the customer journey that can be automated under straightforward rules.

Repeat purchases on online marketplaces, travel bookings and recurring digital services are potential starting points because customers can specify conditions in advance.

A consumer could, for example, authorize an AI agent to arrange transportation within a particular budget and time window. The system could complete the booking if available options meet those requirements, but return the decision to the customer if prices rise or the terms change materially.

For merchants, the commercial opportunity lies in reducing friction in the purchasing process. The operational challenge is establishing when an automated decision remains valid and when additional customer approval is necessary.

As adoption develops, businesses will also need to consider how automated purchasing interacts with existing payment arrangements, fraud controls and customer service processes.

Southeast Asian interoperability remains a hurdle

The Philippines’ participation in a wider Southeast Asian digital economy adds another dimension to the transition.

Cross-border purchases may require AI agents to navigate different payment cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, QR systems, currencies and approval requirements. An automated transaction that works within one domestic payment environment may encounter additional complexity when it crosses into another market.

Interoperability will therefore be important to the development of agentic commerce, particularly as regional businesses seek to serve customers across multiple markets.

The challenge extends beyond enabling AI to initiate payments. Payment systems must also support consistent authorization, security and transaction records across different providers and jurisdictions.

“The long-term value of agentic commerce will not come from automation for its own sake,” Eng said. “It will depend on whether we can make these new experiences easier to support while keeping customer permission, control, and payment security clear throughout the transaction.”

For the Philippines, the next phase of digital commerce may hinge on whether an established base of electronic payments can evolve to accommodate AI-led purchasing. The opportunity is to make transactions more seamless, but the industry will need to preserve the trust that underpins consumer participation as more decisions are delegated to automated systems.