Getnet, Santander's global merchant payments platform, has completed what it describes as the first real-world case in Mexico and Latin America of accepting and processing a payment initiated by an artificial-intelligence agent, working alongside Mastercard and Mexican property-technology startup Neivor.
The milestone is a concrete step in the shift toward agentic commerce, where software agents act on a user's behalf to research, select and pay for goods and services autonomously. While much of the discussion around AI agents has been theoretical, this transaction demonstrates the settlement rails and merchant-acceptance logic actually functioning in a live environment.
How the Transaction Worked
The payment used Mastercard's Agent Pay framework, which lets verified AI agents transact within controls set by the cardholder. Neivor, which builds software for residential and community management, served as the merchant scenario, while Getnet provided the acquiring infrastructure to authorise and process the agent-initiated charge.
The Building Blocks of Agentic Payments
- Agent identity and authentication so merchants can trust the transacting party
- Spending controls and mandates defined by the human account holder
- Merchant acceptance logic that recognises and permits agent-initiated flows
- Real-time authorisation and settlement through existing card rails
- Auditability so every agent action can be traced and reconciled
Why It Matters for Merchants
For merchants, the arrival of AI agents raises a practical question: how do you accept a payment when the buyer is not a human clicking a button but a piece of software executing a task? Getnet's work answers part of that by extending trusted acquiring infrastructure to cover agent-initiated transactions, so businesses can capture this emerging demand without rebuilding their checkout stacks from scratch.
The regional angle is significant. Latin America has been a fast-moving market for payments innovation, driven by high smartphone penetration, a large underbanked population and instant-payment schemes that have reshaped consumer behaviour. Being early to agentic acceptance could give the region's merchants a head start as the technology matures.
The Broader Race to Build Agentic Rails
Getnet is not alone. Across 2026, payment networks and infrastructure providers have been racing to ready their systems for machine-speed commerce, with initiatives spanning card networks, stablecoin settlement layers and dedicated agent wallets. The common thread is the need to let agents transact continuously and at high velocity while preserving security and consumer protection.
- Card networks are extending mandates and controls to cover autonomous agents
- Merchant acquirers are updating acceptance logic for non-human buyers
- Regional pilots are proving the model before broad commercial rollout
What Comes Next
The pilot is a proof point rather than a finished product. The path to scale runs through standardising agent identity, hardening fraud controls for a world where software initiates purchases, and giving consumers clear, revocable authority over what their agents can spend. If those pieces come together, agent-initiated payments could move from a demonstration in Mexico to a routine part of how commerce works. For Santander's Getnet, being first in the region positions it to shape the standards that follow.