AI agents are starting to do more than search. They’re beginning to make purchasing decisions on behalf of users. But there’s a critical gap that isn’t being solved yet: When an AI agent is about to execute a transaction, how does it know the merchant is safe to buy from? The Problem: Trust at the Point of Execution Most existing systems in commerce focus on: Discovery (search, recommendations) Data (catalogs, product attributes) Payments (checkout, wallets) Emerging protocols like UCP improve how structured commerce data is shared. But none of these solve the decision moment : Should this agent trust this merchant enough to complete a transaction? Today, agents rely on: Heuristics designed for human browsing Incomplete or inconsistent signals Platform-specific assumptions This works for recommendations. It does not work for autonomous execution. What’s Missing: A Machine-Native Trust Decision Humans infer trust through: brand recognition reviews UI cues AI agents don’t “experience” any of that.…