Meta, the parent company behind social media giants Facebook and WhatsApp, is eyeing the future of digital commerce through the concept of the 'agentic economy'. Alex Schultz, Meta's Chief Data Officer, emphasized that utilizing AI agents in transactions is not merely a product innovation, but an inevitability that will become a pillar of the company's future business.
In Schultz's view, the agentic economy allows businesses to use AI agents to handle complex tasks, ranging from logistics management to supply chain negotiations, automatically through messaging applications like WhatsApp. A concrete example presented involves an agent capable of coordinating user schedules and needs with high efficiency, which, if implemented at scale, has the potential to revolutionize cross-border commerce.
To support this vision, Meta is positioning stablecoins as the primary payment layer. Schultz openly stated that the era of physical wallets will soon end, replaced by integrated digital payments. This is inspired by the success of conversational commerce models in Asia, such as WeChat and Line, which previously adopted peer-to-peer payments and in-app transactions on a wide scale.
Unlike the ambitious past efforts of the Libra project that faced strict regulatory hurdles, Meta's current strategy focuses more on strategic partnerships. The company positions itself as a commerce interface provider, while payment settlement is handed over to officially regulated third-party stablecoin infrastructure. This approach is considered more accommodating to a regulatory landscape that is currently softening toward the digital asset industry.
Beyond payments, Meta is also paying close attention to identity verification challenges in the agentic economy. Schultz stressed the importance of a system capable of guaranteeing that an agent truly represents a legitimate business entity. Although Meta is open to adopting decentralized identity solutions, the company is still waiting for a system that possesses sufficient scale, reliability, and market penetration for mass adoption.
