We discuss why the ecosystem nearly doubled in size, where venture capital is flowing, and which categories are emerging as the biggest winners.

We also dive into one of the biggest announcements of the week: Adyen launching Agentic, a new orchestration layer that aims to connect merchants to AI commerce platforms through a single integration. Can Adyen challenge Stripe and become the operating system for agentic commerce?

We also unpack the growing importance of "Know Your Agent" infrastructure, the rise of AI agent security startups, and why investors are pouring money into companies focused on trust, identity, governance, and fraud prevention.

Topics covered:

• Why CB Insights expanded its Agentic Commerce Market Map from 90 to 170 companies

• Adyen's new Agentic Commerce platform and what it means for Stripe

• Why AI agent orchestration is becoming a critical layer

• The rise of Know Your Agent (KYA) infrastructure

• AI agent security, governance, and fraud prevention

• The startup categories attracting the most investment in 2026

• Why trust remains the biggest obstacle to agentic commerce adoption

• Whether consumers will ever allow AI agents to spend money on their behalf

• The future of shopping, payments, and customer relationships in an AI-first world

Subscribe for weekly discussions on fintech, payments, stablecoins, AI agents, digital banking, crypto, and the technologies reshaping financial services.