ECB Taps AI Agents to Mind the Digital Euro Checkout

The European Central Bank is opening its digital euro experiment to fintechs and payment firms interested in letting artificial intelligence agents handle transactions. Applications opened Monday for the next round of the ECB's digital euro innovation platform, which splits activity between hands-on prototyping and forward-looking workshops.

The prototyping track will run from January through June 2027. Selected participants will build prototypes for e-receipts, multiparty transactions, conditional payments and new front-end features. Workshops scheduled for the first half of 2027 will examine AI-enabled payments, micropayments, machine-to-machine interactions and uses of the digital euro in public services. A subset of participants will present at the ECB's Frankfurt headquarters, with findings expected to inform future enhancements and use cases.

The digital euro is a proposed central bank digital currency for retail payments across the euro area, designed to operate as digital cash alongside banknotes and coins. Any issuance would still require EU legislation and a subsequent ECB decision.

Separately, the ECB has already selected 36 banks and payment firms, including Revolut, Stripe and Deutsche Bank, for a 12-month pilot set to begin in the second half of 2027. The new AI-focused round runs alongside that effort, broadening the range of organizations contributing to the central bank's design work.