How Google & PayPal Could Rewrite Agentic Commerce | Invisible Machines S6E5
Invisible Machines podcast by UX MagazineShow Notes
As Global Head of AI at PayPal, Prakhar Mehrotra is looking deeply at the ways agentic AI is affecting commerce — particularly timely given PayPal and Google’s recent announcement of a multiyear strategic partnership to advance various commerce solutions. He joins Josh and Robb for a layered conversation that speculates on the shape of future marketplaces, where machines are bidding and setting prices on behalf of individuals and businesses. The trio also discuss the ways that AI is reworking the plumbing of technology within organizations and how agent runtime environments hold the key to successful adoption of AI.
As the world evolves into one with more AI agents than websites, digital interactions might become simplified for users in ways that add complexity for businesses. Prakahr shares his insights into how humans might interact with technology in the future and how technology will change commerce in ways that are hard to fathom but crucial to confront.
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Chapters - 0:00 — Intro & guest: Prakhar Mehrotra, PayPal 1:46 — Galaxy Quest, aliens & how LLMs “learn” 3:46 — When AI gets a wallet: true agency begins 6:42 — Marketing to humans vs marketing to AIs 8:19 — From the information age to the intelligence age 10:25 — Decision hierarchies: bots, assistants & concierge agents 13:05 — Hyper-personalized pricing in the LLM era 17:20 — Merchants vs consumers: who wins when agents decide 19:09 — Human vs tech today, AI vs AI tomorrow (electricity wars) 25:11 — Marketplaces where agents set prices (the PayPal angle) 51:41 — Identity, fraud & trust: why payments need a gatekeeper 54:27 — Micropayments & sub-penny agent-to-agent economies 1:02:04 — PayPal as the “clearing house” of agentic commerce 1:17:16 — Closing thoughts & outro
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