Google-parent Alphabet is shaking up digital payments, cryptocurrency and emerging artificial intelligence-based shopping applications with a new "AI agent" technology. Google stock has climbed 30% in 2025.
Many tech companies are focused on autonomous, goal-driven AI "agents" that complete tasks on their own. One of the big applications is expected to be online shopping on the behalf of consumers.
Google last week announced a new Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), developed with 60 industry partners including Mastercard, American Express, and Paypal. Other supporters include Adyen, Ant International, Coinbase, Etsy, Intuit, Salesforce, ServiceNow, UnionPay International and Worldpay.
Further, AP2 is designed to address authorization, authentication, and accountability in agentic payments. In providing secure commerce for AI agents, it's backed up by cryptographically signed digital contracts.
Economist Ed Yardeni said cryptocurrency companies are supportive of Google's approach.
Google Stock: Agentic Payments
"From a technology standpoint, AP2 is an open, shared protocol that provides a common language for transactions," said Yardeni in a report. "Google says the system will support various payment methods, including credit and debit cards, stablecoins, and real-time bank transfers. This, of course, has folks in the crypto markets excited. Cryptocurrencies' many fans notwithstanding, the currency still isn't used frequently to make purchases in daily life. AP2's ease of payment could change that."
In a Sept. 16 blog post, Google said: "AP2 builds trust by using "Mandates" — tamper-proof, cryptographically-signed digital contracts that serve as verifiable proof of a user's instructions. These mandates are signed by verifiable credentials and act as the foundational evidence for every transaction."
"As with any protocol, AP2's influence will largely hinge on adoption by developers enabling agent-based experiences," said KeyBanc Capital analyst Alex Markgraff in a report.
At a recent AI conference, a Google executive said the company "does not plan to monetize the protocol itself," according to a TD Cowen report.
Rivals are developing similar technology, Yardeni added.
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Rivals Developing New Agentic Payments
Amazon.com is beta testing its "Buy For Me" feature, which is an AI shopping agent that will leave the Amazon website and surf the Internet to find the product for which a Prime customer is looking.
MasterCard has introduced its own MasterCard Agent Pay, which it developed in coordination with Microsoft. Visa has its Intelligent Commerce tool, which replaces credit card details with tokenized digital credentials.
On the stock market today, Google stock fell 0.5% to close at 245.76. Also, Google stock recently hit a valuation of more than $3 trillion. Google stock has gained about 30% in 2025 after underperforming in the first half of the year.
In early September, Google stock rallied when a federal judge ruled that no asset divestitures will be required as part of remedies in an antitrust case involving the tech giant's internet search business. However, a second antitrust case, this time focused on digital advertising, restarted on Sept. 22.
Google Stock Technical Ratings
Meanwhile, Google stock holds an IBD Composite Rating of 98, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
Google stock has an Accumulation/Distribution Rating of A. That rating analyzes price and volume changes in a stock over the past 13 weeks of trading. Its current rating indicates more funds are buying than selling.
Follow Reinhardt Krause on Twitter @reinhardtk_tech for updates on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and cloud computing.
