PayPal highlights agentic commerce at Abu Dhabi Finance Week

By:  Nana Appiah Acquaye

PayPal has outlined its approach to agentic commerce and its growing impact on financial services during discussions held at Abu Dhabi Finance Week. The conversation brought together industry leaders to examine how advanced artificial intelligence systems capable of real-time reasoning and action are reshaping the sector.

Speaking at the event, Otto Abasi Williams, Senior Vice President, Regional Head and General Manager for the Middle East and Africa at PayPal World, said agentic AI is transforming areas such as fraud detection, risk management and customer experience by enabling faster and more dynamic outcomes. He noted that as these systems become more autonomous, building and maintaining trust remains a critical priority.

Mr. Williams highlighted PayPal’s agentic commerce infrastructure, which integrates trust, identity and orchestration capabilities to support secure and efficient transactions. According to him, the platform is designed to strengthen customer protections, simplify complex processes for partners and deliver more relevant and personalized user experiences.

The discussion also addressed the importance of governance, transparency and responsible deployment of AI technologies as financial institutions increasingly adopt intelligent and autonomous systems. Participants agreed that these elements are essential to ensuring sustainable innovation and long-term confidence in digital financial services.

Abu Dhabi Finance Week brings together global leaders from finance, technology and policy to explore emerging trends shaping the future of the financial services industry.