ECB Will Test AI Agents Making Digital Euro Payments From 2027 as Applications Open Until November 9

The European Central Bank has opened a new program to explore whether artificial intelligence agents could use a future digital euro for payments, including micropayments and interactions between machines — the clearest signal yet that the eurozone’s central bank is designing its digital currency for a world where software, not people, initiates transactions.

The ECB said on Sept. 28 that companies, payment firms, fintechs, merchants, public institutions, and researchers can apply to join the next stage of its digital euro innovation platform, with work beginning in 2027. Applications remain open until Nov. 9 at 17:00 CET.

AI agents making payments with central bank money

The exploration program will examine how AI could interact with a possible digital euro without committing to any specific feature for a future launch. Among the areas the ECB wants participants to study are AI agents capable of interacting with payment systems — and with other AI agents.

The central bank has been careful with its language: it has not said that autonomous AI payments will definitely become part of the digital euro. Workshops will take place at the ECB’s Frankfurt headquarters during the first and second quarters of 2027, with selected organizations discussing potential use cases involving consumers, merchants, businesses, and public-sector services.

Micropayments form part of the same research track. Such payments could involve very small amounts that are difficult or expensive to process through conventional payment methods. The ECB’s announcement does not specify transaction sizes or provide a technical model for how AI agents would authorize them.

Machine-to-machine interactions are another area under review, though the ECB frames the program as an examination of future possibilities rather than a decision to give devices or AI systems unrestricted authority to spend digital euros. Privacy requirements will form part of the discussions, with participants expected to consider privacy-by-design principles, user control, and data protection when proposing AI-enabled payment functions.

Prototypes: receipts, conditional payments, multiparty transactions

A second track will move beyond workshops and ask selected companies to build working prototypes. From January through June 2027, participants will test four main areas: electronic receipts, payments involving several senders or recipients, conditional payments, and new features for payment applications.

Electronic receipts could allow proof of purchase to appear directly alongside a digital euro payment in an app, with developers required to consider user privacy while testing the function. Multiparty payments could cover situations where several people contribute toward one transaction, or where one payment needs to be divided among several recipients.

Conditional payments — transactions triggered when predetermined requirements are met — come with an important distinction the ECB is eager to draw. Under the European Commission’s proposal, a digital euro would not be programmable money restricted to certain products, merchants, or periods. Conditional payments instead concern how a transaction executes once agreed conditions are satisfied.

Participants will submit proofs of concept and reports describing their results. The ECB may invite some teams to present their work and could publish findings. The central bank has encouraged joint applications combining companies that perform different roles — a merchant working alongside a payment provider or technology company, for example.

Separate from the 36-provider pilot

The AI program should not be confused with the ECB’s larger digital euro pilot. That pilot is due to begin in the second half of 2027 and run for 12 months, using a beta version of the digital euro to test actual payment functions under controlled conditions alongside 19 euro-area national central banks.

The ECB selected 36 payment service providers after receiving more than 50 applications, a group that includes Deutsche Bank, Revolut Bank, Stripe Technology Europe, UniCredit, Adyen, and SumUp. Staff members will use the beta currency to test person-to-person payments and purchases, spanning online and offline transfers, physical point-of-sale, e-commerce, and mobile transactions. The beta digital euro will not have legal tender status, and the ECB is still recruiting merchants: e-commerce and mobile-commerce businesses can apply until Oct. 27, 2026.

No launch without legislation

None of the testing guarantees Europeans will receive a digital euro. The ECB says it will decide whether to issue the currency only after the required European Union legislation has been adopted, with current planning targeting readiness for a possible first issuance during 2029.

The European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee approved its position on the core digital euro proposal in June 2026, covering issuance, legal tender status, distribution, privacy, data protection, and technical features. Final issuance still requires completion of the legislative process and a separate decision by the ECB’s Governing Council.

Preparations already extend beyond the AI work. Earlier in 2026, the ECB reached agreements to reuse existing European payment standards so banks and merchants could connect digital euro services to current payment infrastructure, describing the proposed currency as digital central bank money for retail use alongside physical banknotes and coins — distributed by banks and supervised payment providers rather than through accounts held directly at the ECB.

The backdrop for crypto markets as the program opens: Bitcoin traded near 83,040 USD, Ethereum near 2,671.91 USD, and Solana around 117.52 USD in the late Sept. 29 snapshot — assets whose appeal rests on exactly the kind of borderless, programmable payments the ECB now wants AI agents to test with euros.