The news: Klarna will adopt Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to facilitate agentic commerce on its platforms, per a press release.

Klarna previously adopted Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and integrated with Google Pay, Chrome’s autofill feature, Google Store, Google Play, and Google Cloud.

Why this matters: Protocols serve as the toll roads for agentic infrastructure. Payment providers who harness the most partnerships with key merchant and/or financing platforms serve to scoop the majority of early agentic volume windfalls. 

Klarna stands to reap a share of our forecasted $20.57 billion in AI platform driven ecommerce retail sales in 2026. This volume is set to grow as new AI technology and eroding trust in incumbents encourages consumers to change their payment and search behaviors. 

Implications for payment providers: Agentic commerce flips power to payment providers from merchants, as consumers discover merchants on AI platforms partnered with payment providers, rather than discover payment providers at the end of a traditional merchant checkout.

To encourage merchant enrollment on their agentic-linked platform, payment providers should differentiate themselves from competitors by offering  clear metrics on performance, preserve rewards programs, and offer dynamic pricing.