Trust to Determine Agentic Commerce Growth in APAC

Agentic commerce is moving from AI-driven product recommendations toward delegated purchasing, but its growth in Asia Pacific will depend on trust, secure payments and reliable checkout execution, according to Peng Xu, founder and CEO of Pivota.

In a conversation at the 2026 Cyberport Venture Capital Forum’s Agentic Economy Summit, Xu discussed how AI agents could select products, identify appropriate merchants and complete transactions on behalf of consumers.

“A good shopping experience is not just about finding relevant products; it is about helping customers act on that recommendation when they are ready to buy,” said Xu. “Pivota helps evaluate the relevant products, merchants and purchase channels based on factors such as availability, price and transaction feasibility.”

He described Pivota’s model as combining merchant decisioning, which helps identify an authentic and suitable seller, with auto execution, which manages operational steps such as checkout, shipping information and payment.

“When you choose a product, it’s so hard to find the right merchant,” Xu said. He characterized Pivota’s role as operating “in between the AI agents and apps and the merchants” so an order can be completed and the result returned to the user.

A good shopping experience is not just about finding relevant products; it is about helping customers act on that recommendation when they are ready to buy.

—Peng Xu, Founder and CEO, Pivota

Payment security part of the user experience

Xu said agentic commerce introduces a security concern because an AI agent may act before a consumer directly interacts with a merchant. He cautioned against giving an agent a raw card number.

Instead, he pointed to payment arrangements in which card details remain with payment providers while the agent receives a limited-use token. He also identified network tokens, stablecoins and blockchain-based payment rails as possible components of safer agent purchases.

Tokens could be linked to a specific order, merchant and amount. Xu also described mandates that allow consumers to set parameters such as a budget or recurring need before confirming a proposed purchase or plan.

For Xu, these safeguards are both technical and behavioral: consumers must believe the agent is acting within their interests, while merchants and payment providers must be willing to accept agent-initiated transactions.

Regional payment systems to shape adoption

Xu said the US is currently an important market for agentic commerce, while Asia is catching up. He expects the region’s development to reflect differences in wallets, funding sources and payment systems.

Mainland China presents a distinct model because commerce often takes place within closed ecosystems. Xu cited platforms such as Taobao and Douyin, where a platform can control more of the user journey than in an open environment involving multiple merchants and payment providers.

He offered a personal example from Shanghai, where an assistant allowed him to request coffee by voice, select a product and pay without switching to another app. “The purchase takes just 10 seconds to 15 seconds!” he said.

The example illustrates Xu’s view that agentic commerce can replace a sequence of forms and app transitions with a conversational instruction, provided the underlying integrations work reliably.

In the next six months, we’ll see a huge shift in Asia.

—Peng Xu, Founder and CEO, Pivota

Connecting recommendations with payment execution

Pivota recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Meitu’s EveLab Insight and Reap. Xu said the companies are exploring how personalized beauty recommendations could connect with product and merchant capabilities before moving an approved purchase through payment infrastructure.

We are exploring how that can make personalized beauty shopping more seamless, while leaving the customer in control of the purchase.

—Peng Xu, Founder and CEO, Pivota

The proposed model reflects the broader architecture Xu described: recommendation systems identify potential products, merchant capabilities help determine where to buy, and payment infrastructure carries the transaction through with consumer approval.

Previously, AIR and Minds by Animoca Brands also announced a partnership with Reap and Pivota to develop identity-powered, personalized agentic commerce: a Minds agent acting on a verified user's authority, recognizing benefits the user has earned, and completing purchases within pre-approved limits.

In the proposed architecture, Pivota will provide the merchant decision and order execution layer: helping the agent choose the product, merchant and transaction path, and carrying the order through the merchant's existing commerce stack. The merchant remains the merchant of record and Pivota does not touch the funds flow.

Product discovery is only the first step in agentic commerce. The harder problem is determining where and how a transaction should actually be executed. Pivota provides the merchant decision and order execution layer that connects agent intent with merchants, helping agents choose the right merchant and transaction path and carry the resulting order through checkout.

—Peng Xu

Reducing friction without weakening authorization

Xu does not expect adoption to be limited to younger, digitally native consumers. He said conversational interfaces may also help people who are less comfortable navigating apps by allowing them to state what they want and receive recommendations.

However, consumers will need time to trust agents with purchases. “A smooth experience, clear authorization, and reliable payment safeguards are essential; too many obstacles can cause people to abandon the process,” Xu said.

His assessment is that agentic commerce will succeed only if it combines delegated purchasing with authenticated transactions, trustworthy merchants, dependable order completion and interfaces simple enough to build confidence.

A smooth experience, clear authorization, and reliable payment safeguards are essential; too many obstacles can cause people to abandon the process.

—Peng Xu, Founder and CEO, Pivota