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Meta's Chief Data Officer Says Agentic Commerce is the Next Tier of Business
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Meta's chief data officer, Alex Schultz, declared that agentic commerce represents the "next tier of business" for the company, envisioning a future where AI agents handle everyday transactions on platforms like WhatsApp. In a recent interview on CoinDesk Spotlight, Schultz outlined Meta's strategy to embed conversational commerce and stablecoins into its ecosystem, positioning the company at the forefront of a shift away from traditional wallets and payment methods. The statement underscores Meta's renewed focus on digital payments, seven years after its controversial Libra project.
Schultz framed the agentic economy as already present but not yet mainstream, drawing on science fiction author William Gibson's famous quote. He revealed that Meta now has over one million weekly active businesses using its AI agents, up from virtually nothing at the start of the year. The executive illustrated the concept with a deliberately mundane example: using agents to coordinate a child's birthday party, booking times, checking calendars, and communicating with other parents' agents on WhatsApp. He argued that if agents can handle low-stakes logistics, they can scale to supply chain negotiations and cross-border commerce.
Central to this vision is the integration of stablecoins. Schultz noted that stablecoins are "assumed inside Meta," but the harder challenge is achieving global adoption. He predicted a future without physical wallets, pointing to WeChat's red envelope model and Line's commerce infrastructure in Asia as proof that conversational commerce works at scale. Fortune Business Insights projects the conversational commerce market to reach $39.53 billion by 2034, driven largely by AI.
Schultz criticized the United States' reliance on iMessage, calling it "very backwards" compared to platforms like WhatsApp, which already supports over a million small businesses in Brazil and India conducting commerce through conversations. He emphasized that Asia has set the standard for direct consumer-merchant connections, often amplified by influencers. This perspective highlights Meta's ambition to replicate that success globally.
The conversation coincided with the seventh anniversary of Facebook's Libra announcement, which Schultz acknowledged with a dry aside: "Maybe we said some stuff that annoyed some governments." Unlike Libra's attempt to create a proprietary global stablecoin, Meta now pursues a partnership-driven strategy, acting as the interface layer while relying on regulated third-party stablecoins for settlement. This shift reflects the changed regulatory landscape, with stablecoin legislation in place and a more accommodating SEC.
Schultz also touched on decentralization and proof-of-humanity systems, expressing enthusiasm: "My God, it would be useful." He warned that without such systems, bot swarms could overwhelm AI agents, undermining trust in automated commerce. This acknowledgment signals Meta's awareness of the challenges ahead.
Looking forward, Meta's agentic commerce push could redefine online transactions, but success hinges on stablecoin adoption and global regulatory alignment. As Schultz put it, the agentic economy is already here - it's just not evenly distributed, and Meta aims to change that.
