Gr4vy has introduced support for agentic payments through its orchestration layer and launched an Agentic Development Kit for merchants building AI-native storefronts.
The move targets retailers that want to sell products inside AI platforms such as ChatGPT without replacing their existing payment systems.
Its orchestration layer can now manage and process transactions initiated in AI-driven environments, where conversational systems are increasingly shaping product discovery and guiding users through checkout. The new kit is intended to provide merchants with a framework for creating storefronts in those environments and linking them to existing payment arrangements via a single API.
The announcement comes as AI tools begin to play a more direct role in shopping. Gr4vy cited Morgan Stanley research showing that 23% of US consumers made a purchase using AI in the past month, suggesting the technology is moving beyond recommendations and into transactions.
Payment shift
That shift creates a challenge for merchants whose payment systems were built for conventional websites and apps, not transactions that begin inside conversational interfaces. Gr4vy argues that many retailers lack the infrastructure and visibility to manage payments in AI-led channels, particularly when they want oversight of routing, fraud checks and transaction performance across multiple providers.
With the Agentic Development Kit, merchants can launch storefronts inside AI platforms and use Gr4vy's orchestration layer to handle transactions in real time. Businesses can continue using their current payment stack or connect to more than 400 payment methods and payment service providers.
The kit runs on the Model Context Protocol, a standard that supports interactions between AI systems and external tools. That allows shopping and checkout to take place directly inside conversational interfaces rather than sending users to separate webpages or apps.
Merchants can also apply real-time routing, retries, fraud rules and dynamic workflows through the orchestration layer. Gr4vy said the system operates in a PCI Level 1-compliant environment and provides merchants with visibility into agentic transactions, enabling them to monitor performance and adjust routing strategies.
Merchant control
John Lunn, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gr4vy, said the company is already handling transactions inside ChatGPT.
"AI is quickly becoming part of the checkout journey," Lunn said. "We're already enabling agentic payments inside ChatGPT today. The Agentic Development Kit is the next step, providing merchants with a structured way to adopt this model. You don't need to rebuild your payments stack. You just need the right infrastructure layer to support it."
His comments reflect a broader debate in payments over where control sits as AI intermediaries become part of commerce. Merchants have spent years building payment stacks that combine gateways, fraud tools and multiple processors, and many are wary of adding another layer of complexity as shopping behaviour changes.
Gr4vy argues that orchestration can serve as a control layer between merchants and the growing range of sales channels, including AI assistants. In that model, merchants do not need to redesign their entire payment architecture for each new interface. Instead, the orchestration layer manages transactions while storefronts and customer interactions shift to new environments.
This is not the first time the payments sector has had to adapt to a new commerce interface. The rise of mobile commerce, digital wallets and embedded finance has forced merchants and payment providers to reconsider how transactions are authorised, routed and secured. AI-driven shopping may bring a similar shift, especially if consumers become more comfortable completing purchases inside chat-based tools.
For merchants, a central question will be whether AI-assisted shopping generates enough sales volume to justify investment. The research cited by Gr4vy suggests consumer adoption is already meaningful, but the market is still early and practical questions remain about trust, checkout design and how much control shoppers want to hand to AI systems.
Lunn said merchants should focus on maintaining control over payments as transactions move into AI channels.
"Merchants don't need to rebuild their payment stack to participate in AI commerce," he said. "They need the right control layer, and that's what Gr4vy provides."