Blockchain and Crypto Set to Power Agentic AI Growth
Franklin Templeton and Animoca Brands have teamed up to explore institutional adoption of tokenized real-world assets, potentially benefiting both parties financially. Their co-authored article series focuses on tokenization and financial infrastructure, but emphasizes it is not investment advice.
The evolution of artificial intelligence has transformed from early machine learning tools to generative AI, which co-creates content. The next phase, agentic AI, is set to revolutionize daily life by autonomously executing complex tasks. By 2028, 38% of organizations expect AI agents to collaborate with humans, driving productivity and innovation.
Agentic AI is poised to handle $3-$5 trillion in commerce by 2030, with 15%-25% of US e-commerce sales potentially managed by AI agents. Transactions between software systems will rely on protocols like the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) and the open-source "402" payment standard, enabling seamless machine-to-machine payments.
Blockchain technology is uniquely suited to support agentic AI by providing secure, verifiable, and high-throughput record-keeping. Legacy financial systems are ill-equipped for micropayments, making crypto technologies and blockchains essential for AI agent transactions. Blockchains facilitate decentralized identity verification, auditability, and access to distributed computing resources.