Global head of Spring by Citi: Agentic commerce readiness markers
Agentic commerce "still in the early days," Vineeth Subramanyam says
Agentic commerce is possible — proven by card giants Visa and Mastercard — but is it scalable?
Vineeth Subramanyam, global head of Spring by Citi, Citi’s integrated cash management and trade finance service platform, argues not yet.
“It’s still in the early days,” Subramanyam told FinAi News, noting that being able to complete an agentic transaction is just part of the equation.
To scale agentic payments, Subramanyam is watching three readiness markers:
- Core infrastructure: Is the technical plumbing ready to handle agentic commerce at scale with the right protocols and infrastructure?
- Rules and regulations: Liability, regulation and mandates must be determined.
- Consumer demand: Even when infrastructure and regulation are ready, consumers must want to transact this way and trust the infrastructure. Without adoption, it won’t be possible to scale.
Evolution of commerce
Commerce has evolved over the years, and it takes time to figure out how to make new channels mainstream.
Think about the shift from physical shopping to online, now mobile and social media commerce — that all needed to be navigated, Subramanyam said.
Agentic commerce will require another learning curve, he said.
However, adoption is expected to tick up in the coming years, according to research by Morgan Stanley. In fact, agentic shoppers could represent $190 billion to $385 billion in U.S. e-commerce spending by 2030, or 10% to 20% of the market.
In a December 2025 report, Morgan Stanley projected that e-commerce spend will make up 1% of the market this year.
“Agentic will be a paradigm shift for e-commerce,” research analyst Nathan Feather wrote in the report.
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