THE next time an AI agent books a ride, selects a product or presses “pay”, the most important financial decision may happen before the transaction begins: deciding what the machine is allowed to do with your money.
Malaysia has already entered this new phase. In March 2026, the country recorded its first authenticated agentic commerce pilot involving Mastercard, CIMB and RHB. During the pilot, an AI agent booked a ride from KLIA to KL Sentral on a user’s behalf, with consent and authentication built into the process.
This is more than a faster checkout.
It marks a shift from technology that helps us make financial decisions to technology that can make and execute parts of those decisions for us.
That distinction matters because an efficient transaction is not always the best financial decision. A lower monthly instalment may still strain next month’s cash flow.
A “best deal” may encourage an unnecessary purchase. An automatic renewal may preserve an expense a household no longer values.
AI can optimise a transaction without necessarily optimising financial wellbeing.
Financial literacy therefore needs to evolve. Consumers must learn not only whether they can afford a purchase, but also how to define priorities, set limits and decide which parts of their financial judgement can safely be delegated to an AI system.
Traditional financial education assumes the person learning is also the person making the final decision. We teach people how to budget, compare prices, borrow responsibly and invest because they are expected to make the final call.
But what happens when some of that decision-making is delegated to a machine?
The issue is not whether AI can complete a transaction efficiently. It can. The harder question is whether efficiency always produces a sound financial outcome.
Malaysians are already embracing AI for financial decisions. An HSBC-commissioned survey found that 85% of affluent and high-net-worth respondents in Malaysia use AI tools for finance, placing the country among the highest-adoption markets surveyed.
Even so, 58% still preferred combining AI with human judgement when making financial decisions.
That caution is worth preserving.
As AI moves from recommending to acting, consumers will need a new form of financial literacy: knowing not only how to make decisions, but also what should be delegated.
Three questions become especially important.
First, what exactly am I authorising? Giving an AI agent permission to “find the best option” is not the same as defining what “best” means. Is it the lowest price, lowest risk, best value or the option that best fits a household budget?
Second, what limits have I set? Consumers should define spending caps, time periods, product categories and situations requiring human approval. Convenience should not become open-ended authority.
Third, what happens if the agent gets it wrong? This goes beyond cybersecurity. The OECD has warned that autonomous systems can expand consumer capability while also limiting personal autonomy, depending on how they are designed and governed.
Consumers therefore need to know whether they can reverse a transaction, challenge a decision and understand exactly what authority the AI was given.
Financial institutions and technology companies have responsibilities too. Agentic commerce should come with meaningful consent, transparent limits, clear records of an agent’s authority and simple ways to pause or revoke permissions.
The industry is already moving in that direction. Mastercard’s Malaysian pilot emphasised consent, authentication and consumer control, while Visa is expanding programmes to prepare banks and payment providers across Asia Pacific for agent-initiated commerce.
Financial education must now catch up.
For years, we have taught people to think before they spend. The next challenge is teaching them when technology may think and act on their behalf, and when it should not.
AI will make finance faster, more personalised and more convenient. But progress should not be measured by how many financial decisions we automate.
It should be measured by how much human judgement we preserve when the consequences remain ours to bear. ‒ Aug 27, 2026
Dr Amirah Shazana Magli is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image: Nikkei Asia
