Synthetic Agents, Real Money

February 26, 2026, Video: "AI Will Shop, Pay, and Decide for You. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Building Governance for the Agentic Economy The rise of autonomous AI agents is reshaping how economic decisions are made. Soon, digital agents will search, negotiate, purchase, invest, and execute payments on behalf of individuals and businesses, transforming financial rails through real-time settlement, stablecoins, and new protocols for agent identity and machine-to-machine transactions. But the agentic economy also introduces systemic risks, including AI-generated fraud, privacy erosion, commercial and algorithmic bias, market manipulation, and the concentration of economic power among data-driven platforms. This lecture examines how agentic commerce will redefine markets and financial systems, and what governance and security frameworks are needed to preserve trust in an economy increasingly run by machines. This hybrid seminar was held on Thursday, February 26, 2026 and given by Dr. Shlomit Wagman, Former Chair, Financial Intelligence Agency, Israel; Former Chair, FATF Risk Working Group; Research Fellow, M-RCBG. It was moderated by John Haigh, Co-Director, M-RCBG and Lecturer, HKS."