London, May 1, 2026, 16:02 BST
Experian PLC rolled out Agent Trust, a new framework aimed at confirming the connection between consumers and AI agents, as software increasingly handles searching, selecting, and buying for individuals. The FTSE 100 data company described the product as using a “Know Your Agent” approach—essentially, checks to ensure any bot involved is truly representing a legitimate, authorised person. Experian
Timing is key here: AI shopping agents are no longer just handling chat and search—they’re starting to execute transactions. That’s a headache for banks, card networks, and retailers, all now forced to figure out if the party making the purchase is a real customer, an authorized bot, or just a fraudster posing as automated software.
Experian traded 0.6% higher at 2,706 pence late Friday in London, picking up from a 2,684.50 pence open. Shares, though, remain far off the 52-week peak of 4,101 pence, Google Finance shows.
Experian says it’s building Agent Trust alongside Visa, Cloudflare, and Skyfire. The platform aims to link together a validated user, their device, and an AI agent, then generate a trust token on the spot while maintaining a registry that rates agents based on behavior and risk data.
“Agentic commerce will not scale without trust,” said Kathleen Peters, Experian’s chief innovation officer. Verifying not just the agent but also the person operating it—and confirming genuine purchase intent—is now part of Experian’s expanding identity and transaction check toolkit, she said. Experian
Visa’s Rubail Birwadker described Visa Intelligent Commerce and Trusted Agent Protocol as a foundation for secure, agent-led shopping. Cloudflare’s Strategy Chief Stephanie Cohen argued the pivot to AI agents depends on having infrastructure “rooted in trust.” For merchants, Skyfire CEO Amir Sarhangi added, confidence hinges on agents being able to pay “as reliably as people do.” Business Wire
Experian’s latest product extends the company’s reach into fraud prevention and identity, building on its core strength in credit data, decision analytics, and consumer info. According to Experian, its suite of fraud-prevention tools saves clients somewhere between $15 billion and $19 billion in fraud losses annually.
Experian snapped up 241,959 ordinary shares for cancellation on April 30, records filed Friday show. The stock was acquired via Goldman Sachs International, averaging 2,681.6018 pence per share. This move falls under the buyback programme rolled out Jan. 30.
Back in January, Experian kicked off a $1 billion share buyback, Reuters reported, adding that its medium-term financial framework, dividend policy, and capital allocation approach would stay the same.
Experian is set to release its full-year numbers on May 20, giving investors a more complete picture. Back in January, the company stuck with its outlook for 8% organic revenue growth for the year, after posting the same 8% gain in the third quarter, according to Reuters.
Competition in the space is heating up. When FICO shifted gears last year and began offering credit scores straight to mortgage lenders and resellers, shares of credit-bureau players like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion took a hit. The move, covered by , also put fresh scrutiny on bureau margins in sections of the mortgage-scoring pipeline.
The impact of Agent Trust remains uncertain for now. Its success relies on whether banks, merchants, payment networks, and AI platforms actually adopt shared methods to identify agents. Risks like fraud, misrepresentation, and unauthorized transactions—the problems Experian hopes to tackle—may even escalate before any industry-wide standards take hold.
