As companies like Google, PayPal Holdings, and Stripe work to establish agentic AI commerce in the consumer space, another big opportunity for this technology lies in commerce operations.
This technology has enormous potential in the world of commercial finance and business-to-business functions, Deloitte Consulting noted in its report. Trends and outlook 2026 report.
“We’re going to see a little more middle and back office type things, where agents are doing things like reconciliation, invoice matching, exception handling,” Zachary Aron, OfLoitte global and U.S. leader in banking and capital markets payments, said in an interview Wednesday about the November report.
Companies are likely to deploy artificial intelligence agents, initially, in areas with “definable ecosystems of buyers and suppliers,” with less variability, said Aron, a 31-year payments industry veteran.
He cited business travel, with its “repeatable” transaction flow, and defined metrics as a likely area of agentic AI effectiveness, as well as commercial real estate contracts, leases and payments that occur “on a regular and synchronized basis.”
Agentic AI is also likely to have “a significant impact in areas such as e-commerce and procurement, where agents can help both customers and businesses optimize financing options, payment times and methods, and logistics management,” according to the Deloitte report.
By 2030, about 40% of “enterprise software will include custom applications built using native AI platforms,” up from 2% last year, according to another global research firm, Gartner, which published its study. Strategic Technology Trends for the 2026 report last month.
Many companies with AI pilot efforts will see 2026 as the time to capitalize on their AI investments, Aron said.
“Organizations that don’t just have four or five (AI) initiatives, but understand how those pieces work together to change payments, will be much more successful,” he said.
For many companies, these B2B agents will drive changes to existing operations because of the ability for executives to have a more complete view of their business functions, according to the Deloitte report.
“How do you make these things work together?” Aron said, suggesting several questions that officers will likely cause many leaders to ponder:
“How do I ask an agent to start thinking about my cash flow management? When should my suppliers be paid? What is the optimal way to manage cash flow? How do I build a cash flow plan? ISO 20022 message to be able to use a real-time payment train or cross the border?
As businesses adopt new technologies such as real-time payments and stablecoins, AI will increasingly take on some tasks that businesses once left to humans, the report notes.
“Payments are becoming more deeply integrated into business processes, leading to greater efficiency and seamless integration across platforms,” write the Deloitte authors.