Paystack has launched Paystack Index, an AI-powered payments platform designed to enable artificial intelligence (AI) agents such as ChatGPT, Claude, and OpenClaw to complete transactions on behalf of users in Nigeria.
The product, developed by Paystack with support from TSG Labs, marks the first public launch from the venture studio since Paystack announced the formation of The Stack Group in January 2026.
The Stack Group serves as the holding company for Paystack, Zap, Paystack Microfinance Bank, and TSG Labs, which focuses on building experimental products that may be too early for the group’s established businesses.
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The launch reflects Paystack’s belief that AI agents are evolving from tools that simply answer questions into digital assistants capable of making purchases, booking services, and managing financial transactions.
“If you take a step back and compare the number of people that are using their browser for commerce and now introducing agents for discovery, you’ll see that agents are coming up and browsers are going down,” Paystack CEO Shola Akinlade said.
Paystack Index allows users to ask supported AI assistants to perform everyday transactions without manually navigating websites or mobile apps. The platform interprets user requests, connects with participating merchants and service providers, processes payments using Paystack and Zap’s infrastructure, and completes the checkout process within the AI experience.
The platform is currently available in Nigeria and supports AI clients including ChatGPT, Claude, and OpenClaw.
At launch, users can purchase airtime and mobile data, transfer money through Zap, and order meals from Chowdeck using supported AI agents.
For now, the company is focusing on simple, routine transactions rather than complex purchasing decisions. Airtime purchases, money transfers, and food orders were selected because they follow predictable buying patterns and provide an opportunity to understand how consumers interact with AI-powered commerce.
Paystack is also carefully managing the merchant ecosystem in the platform’s early stages. Merchants are currently selected by the company, although Akinlade said that approach could evolve as adoption increases and more businesses seek to participate.
The launch represents an early investment in what many technology companies describe as “agentic commerce”, a model where AI agents become the primary interface through which consumers discover products and complete purchases.
Despite growing excitement around AI, Akinlade believes widespread adoption will take time.
“The thing we know is that there’s a bunch of early adopters in Nigeria or in Africa. There are people that used ChatGPT on the first day and back to the spirit of TSG Labs, we wanted to start building with those early adopters,” he said.
Rather than chasing immediate transaction volumes, Paystack says its priority is understanding how consumers behave when AI agents become purchasing assistants and identifying the payment infrastructure merchants will need to safely support this new shopping experience.
The company expects the learning phase to continue over the next year before the technology gains significant mainstream adoption.
Interest in AI-powered financial infrastructure is also growing across Africa’s fintech ecosystem. Earlier this month, Anchor launched an MCP server that allows AI agents to access and interact with its API resources, signalling increasing investment in infrastructure for AI-native financial applications.
The emergence of AI-powered commerce also raises questions about how businesses will maintain customer relationships when AI systems increasingly mediate purchasing decisions.
Akinlade believes the shift mirrors the transition from physical retail stores to e-commerce, where businesses adapted by using digital storefronts, customer reviews, online marketing, and personalised experiences to engage consumers.
He argued that AI could ultimately improve how merchants communicate with customers by allowing businesses to provide richer context about their products and services.
“If you have a commerce website, you can’t talk to the website, but the way agentic commerce works, the merchant can actually add a lot of context to their website,” he said.
To address concerns around security and unauthorised spending, Paystack said users remain fully in control of every transaction completed through Index.
The platform only executes requests submitted through a user’s chosen AI assistant and within spending limits and permissions configured by the user. Customers can define guardrails that determine what transactions AI agents are authorised to perform on their behalf.
For Paystack, the launch is less about immediate commercial returns and more about positioning the company for the future of digital commerce.
As AI agents increasingly become the interface consumers use to discover products and complete purchases, the fintech company aims to build the payments infrastructure that will power the next generation of online transactions.
