ECB puts AI agent payments on the digital euro drawing board

The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting companies to propose ideas for incorporating artificial intelligence agents and machine-to-machine interactions into the digital euro, as the bank prepares a separate digital euro pilot for 2027. On Monday, the ECB launched applications for a new phase of its digital euro innovation platform, which will run from January to June 2027.

This experimentation track will focus on hands-on testing of payment features and workshops exploring various potential uses of the digital euro. The experimentation track will include developing prototypes for e-receipts, multiparty transactions, conditional payments, and new front-end features. Meanwhile, workshops in the first half of 2027 will cover topics like AI-enabled payments, micropayments, machine-to-machine interactions, and uses of the digital euro in public services.

A select group of participants will present their findings at the ECB’s headquarters in Frankfurt. The ECB emphasized that the insights gained from these experiments could guide future enhancements and use cases for the digital euro, which is intended to function as digital cash alongside physical banknotes and coins across the euro area.

The ECB has already chosen 36 banks and payment firms, such as Revolut, Stripe, and Deutsche Bank, for a 12-month pilot beginning in the second half of 2027. However, any issuance of the digital euro would still depend on EU legislation and a subsequent decision by the ECB.