Glossary
Agentic Payment
A payment executed by an autonomous AI agent on behalf of a person or business, without per-transaction human approval.
Definition
An agentic payment is a value transfer executed by an autonomous software agent — typically an LLM-based agent — that selects the counterparty, amount, and timing without a human approving each transaction. Examples include agents paying for API calls, settling invoices, tipping creators, or moving treasury funds.
Regulatory context
Under OFAC's strict-liability regime, the fact that an agent (rather than a human) executed a prohibited payment does not transfer liability away from the operator. The person or entity that deployed the agent remains responsible for every transaction it executes.
Who it affects
Developers and companies deploying autonomous payment agents — AI coding agents, treasury agents, commerce agents, and any system using x402, Coinbase AgentKit, LangChain, or similar frameworks to move money.
Relevance to AI agents
Every agentic payment path needs a sanctions gate inline before execution. Without it, the operator inherits strict-liability exposure for every transaction the agent makes. Pre-transaction screening at <100ms is the control that makes agentic payments defensible.
SanctionsAI coverage
SanctionsAI is built specifically for agentic payments: a single API call, sub-100ms, fail-closed, with first-class integrations for the major agent frameworks.
FAQ
1. Who is liable if an AI agent pays a sanctioned wallet?
The person or entity that deployed the agent. OFAC liability does not transfer to the software.
2. How do you screen agentic payments?
Inline, before the transaction is signed, with a sub-100ms sanctions check on the destination wallet or name.
Screen a counterparty free
OFAC sanctions screening in under 100ms. Free tier: 5 checks/day.
Screen a wallet free → See pricing