ECB Launches Digital Euro Innovation Phase with AI-Powered Payments

The European Central Bank (ECB) has launched a new initiative to test and explore the potential of a digital euro, inviting companies and organizations to develop applications built around this potential currency. The program is open until November 9, 2026, with selected participants expected to be announced in January 2027.

The initiative is split into two tracks: experimentation and exploration. The experimentation track will test practical features such as electronic receipts, transactions involving multiple payers or recipients, conditional payments, and new features within payment apps. The ECB will provide selected participants with access to a dedicated testing environment and expects them to develop proof-of-concepts or prototypes.

The exploration track takes the digital euro into areas that could shape future versions of the system, including artificial intelligence in payments, AI agents, micro-payments, and machine-to-machine transactions. The ECB is also examining public-sector applications, including transport, utilities, smart-city services, financial inclusion, and public-sector automation.

The ECB has already selected 36 banks and payment firms for a separate 12-month pilot program to test payment functionality, operational processes, and user experience across the ECB and 19 euro area national central banks. This latest program builds on an innovation platform launched in 2024 through which about 70 market participants previously explored conditional payments and other potential digital euro use cases.