The recent announcement by Stripe to create a payment SDK for AI agents joins similar moves by Coinbase, Circle, and soon OpenAI and Perplexity, signaling a growing wave of interest in combining AI agents with payments. Fintechs, AI and crypto firms alike are diving into this space, betting that agents and payments could become a major category. But what exactly are agent payments, and why would agents need the ability to pay? And what challenges stand in the way of realizing this vision?