Simon Jones

Founder. Speaker. Very occasional Author. Building the future of Finance @sumvin. Web4 maxi.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

Best exit of my career. Shame nobody paid for it.

Co-founded it, majority shareholder, built it, sold it. A year later, still waiting for the money.

Some people are a good advert for why not everyone should be allowed to run a company.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

A payment should make the next one more personal. That only works if the customer and the merchant both keep a record of what was bought, why, and on whose authority. Otherwise the agent starts from zero every time.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@LexSokolin @mercury @tryramp Software vs bank is the right fork. Multiples follow the data, not the balance sheet: Ramp sees every purchase and why it happened. The next test is agents spending on company cards. Whoever can show what each agent bought, and for whom, wins that.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

I know a lot of people are complaining about BOTS on here. It’s fair comment. But seriously, go look at LinkedIn . It’s dire these days.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@PhilipQiu5 It’s no surprise that merchants won’t take the friendly fraud risk by allowing a non-deterministic agent to make deterministic choices . They also kinda quite like having customers…..,

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@vigstar1 The question is what true value add exists in the product and how you can charge for it. Adding agentic commerce over the top of existing rails does not make a lot of economic sense without data you can get $ for .

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@OpenAI Claiming the listing is step one. The useful bit is when a Business Agent can help someone buy, and both the customer and the merchant can see what was recommended and on whose authority.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@soupsranjan This is why handing an agent a login and hoping the fraud stack copes isn't enough. The merchant needs a portable authority record: who the agent is acting for, and what it's allowed to do, sitting outside the model.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@andyfang Traction outside the tech hubs is the tell. The next question is whether the merchant can see it was an agent, and the customer can see exactly what was ordered on their behalf. That's how this gets personal, not just convenient.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@developer_dao @alexsrawitz @crossmint Whatever they buy first, the merchant still needs to see who the agent was acting for, and the customer needs a record they can trust. That's what makes the second purchase happen.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@sytaylor A card programme that can also buy stocks is still a card. The jump that matters is a record both the customer and the broker can trust, and that you can revoke.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

An employee can leave without the company losing its identity. An agent should be replaceable too. Give it credentials you can revoke without rebuilding every relationship around it.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@chowtato 🙌 that’s why and what I’m building,

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

If your agent's "human approval" is an email OTP, and the agent can read email, you don't have a control. You have cosplay. Spend authority has to live outside the model.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@brij_fi Yes. Who the agent acted for, what it was allowed to spend, and what actually cleared. That's the product. Rails are a commodity.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@PhilipQiu5 The issue will be the merchant sees a Visa virtual not an Amex. So that damages Amex position with the merchant on acceptances. I.e less transactions = less incentive to pay the higher interchange.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@aa_y_ush @oost_marcel @Mastercard @OpenAI @MiebachMichael It shouldn't need a new regulator. It needs a portable authority record the customer and merchant both hold. Networks gatekeep because nobody else made spend permission portable. Fix that and the gatekeeping shrinks.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@LA_Iron_man This. A valid signature on a bad instruction is still a bad spend. Permissions and identity have to sit outside the model, or you're just automating obedience.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@sparkyfi_ai A spending limit enforced by an email the agent can read isn't a limit. It's a costume. Authority has to live outside the model or the agent can always vote itself a raise.

[Simon Jones @Simonjones]

@ronniemgreen Right. Handing an agent a card is the easy bit. The hard bit is proving who it was acting for and what it was allowed to do. Until that's visible, it's just a faster way to create chargebacks.