Paymentology has proposed using the controls found in digital gift cards and virtual prepaid cards as a foundation for payments made by AI agents. Its August 3, 2026 article describes a potential role for payment credentials with a set value, limited validity and restrictions on where funds can be spent.

The company’s argument is that an agent handling an authorised purchase, subscription renewal or procurement task needs a defined spending boundary. It points to card-level limits, merchant-category restrictions, expiry rules and tokenisation as components of that arrangement.

Paymentology relates the proposal to its Decision Engine, which configures spending rules, and Token Control, which manages network tokens. It also describes push provisioning as a way to place credentials in wallets and platforms. The article presents an opportunity for these capabilities rather than announcing a particular bank or merchant deployment.

To frame the South African market, the article cites a PayNXT360 forecast that had put gift card sales at USD 1.5 billion for 2025, with annual growth of 12.3%, and projected USD 2.27 billion by 2029 at a 10.9% compound annual growth rate. These figures are forecasts cited by Paymentology, rather than confirmed 2025 results.

The article also cites GlobalData’s estimate that South African card payments reached ZAR 2.7 trillion in 2024, up 10.3%. Paymentology places conventional consumer and corporate gifting alongside the proposed longer-term use of controlled credentials in agent-led commerce.