AI agents are becoming core to business operations. The Pax8 2025 Research Report: The Agentic Inflection Point reports 54% of mid-size enterprises already deploy AI in some form.
Autonomous AI agents are rapidly emerging as “digital emissaries” – software that acts on behalf of people and businesses to browse, transact, and make decisions online.
This growing AI-driven marketplace, the agentic economy, will unlock entirely new revenue streams as agents become customers in their own right (e.g. an AI assistant purchasing cloud services or SaaS tools on behalf of a company). To safely realize this future, enterprises need a standards-based identity and payments infrastructure that treats agents like first-class digital citizens.
Ory and Skyfire’s partnership addresses this challenge by combining Skyfire’s AI-native payments and identity verification with Ory Hydra’s proven OAuth2/OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication and authorization server. By building on existing open standards, the solution lets developers onboard and authorize AI agents without reinventing identity flows or sacrificing security.
AI agents can programmatically create accounts, verify their identity through Skyfire’s Know Your Agent (KYA) process, and obtain OAuth2 tokens from Ory Hydra – all using familiar OIDC flows. Enterprises can then accept agents just as they accept human users, applying the same fine-grained access controls and audit logging. The result is a secure, compliant bridge to an AI-native economy where agents can effortlessly pay for services on behalf of people or businesses.
Identity for AI: Introducing “Know Your Agent” (KYA)
Traditional identity verification, Know Your Customer, (KYC) is built for humans, not for autonomous software. There’s a major market gap: traditional methods of identity verification do not apply to AI agents. AI agents have no passports, no physical address, and no traditional credentials. Yet businesses need a way to trust the agent that’s interacting with their systems.
Skyfire’s answer is Know Your Agent (KYA) – a digital identity framework tailored for AI. KYA lets agents build a verified identity profile through digital checkpoints (such as existing forms of authentication, interaction and Skyfire transaction history, and developer identification) and earn trust badges (like “verified agent”, similar to the blue checkmarks found on social media).
In short, KYA gives each agent a trust badge and identity token that can be recognized across platforms. This establishes a foundation of trust: only agents with proper KYA credentials can transact, and malicious or unknown bots are kept out.
Ory Hydra: OAuth2/OIDC authentication at machine scale
Once an agent has a KYA identity, it needs a way to authenticate and get authorized on enterprise systems. This is where Ory Hydra comes in. Ory Hydra is an open‑source, OpenID Certified OAuth2.0 and OIDC server designed for massive scale. It issues, validates, and introspects tokens for any client – human or machine – using the same OAuth2/OIDC protocols that power web logins today.
In practice, an AI agent can go through a standard OAuth2 flow with Hydra (just like a human user). Hydra then issues an access token (and ID token if needed) that represents the agent’s identity and permissions. Because Hydra is OIDC-certified, any service that trusts OIDC tokens can immediately accept agent logins without custom code.
It’s important to note that Hydra was built for machines from the ground up. While legacy OAuth providers are retrofitting their human-centric systems for AI, Ory Hydra is architected from day one for machine-scale authentication. Additionally, Ory Hydra provides real-time token introspection and revocation as needed. If an agent goes rogue or is compromised, administrators can instantly kill its tokens or even an entire delegation chain.
Key features of Ory Hydra for agentic AI include:
- Machine-scale: Supports thousands of token validations per second.
- OAuth2/OIDC Certified: Works with any standard IAM or authorization system.
- MCP Integration: Designed for AI workflows and native agent-to-agent protocols.
- Real-time Revocation: Built-in “kill switches” let you revoke tokens (or chains of tokens) instantly if an agent behaves unexpectedly.
- Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA): ensure each transaction is compliant, auditable, and enforceable using relationship-based access control (ReBac).
Together, these features mean an enterprise can continue using its existing identity and access rules. Agents simply appear as another type of authenticated user. Every action performed by an agent, whether it’s an API call or a payment will be cryptographically accountable, signed by its credential, and fully auditable. This guarantees a clear, trustworthy trail tying each action back to a particular agent’s identity.
Skyfire: Autonomous payments and “agent wallets”
While Ory Hydra handles authentication and access, Skyfire handles the financial infrastructure. Each AI agent gets a programmable digital wallet on Skyfire’s network. This wallet can hold funds or payment instruments (e.g. stablecoins like USDC, credit accounts, etc.) and enforces spending rules. Agents can programmatically present verified credentials and payment methods, enabling access to digital services without manual account creation. In other words, when an agent wants to buy a product or subscribe to a service, Skyfire simultaneously confirms its identity (via KYA) and charges the agent’s wallet, all without any human involvement.
For example, a content provider could allow an AI agent to pay for paywalled data. The agent requests access via the Skyfire API; Skyfire verifies the agent’s KYA status and wallet balance, then issues an authorization token. The content API then verifies the token (through Ory) and delivers the data, while Skyfire charges the agent’s account. Throughout this flow, the agent was treated like a human subscriber – it signed in, paid, and gained access – all programmatically.
Any business with an online product (APIs, data services, digital content, even physical goods) can gain a new revenue stream from agents. And because Skyfire’s protocols are open, any developer can integrate agent payments without complex new software.
How Ory + Skyfire integration works
- Agent onboarding (KYA): An AI agent is registered via API or an MCP server. Skyfire conducts KYA checks (digital identity, historical behavior, developer attestation) and issues the agent a trust credential.
- OAuth2 token issuance: Using a standard OAuth2/OIDC flow, the agent obtains a signed JWT from Ory Hydra. This token encapsulates the agent’s identity and permissions. Because Hydra is OIDC-certified, the token can be introspected by any OIDC-aware service.
- Service request: The agent calls the target API or service, presenting the OAuth2 access token. The service validates the token with Ory Hydra (token introspection) and confirms the agent is allowed to access that resource. This step leverages existing access-control policies without change.
- Payment execution: In parallel, the service or agent triggers a Skyfire payment using the agent’s digital wallet. Skyfire confirms the agent’s credentials (KYA) and executes payment to the service provider. The service is notified once payment settles, finalizing the transaction.
- Logging & audit: All steps are logged – the agent’s identity, token issuance, API calls, and payment details – providing a complete audit trail. This ensures accountability and compliance.
New revenue streams and a secure agent economy
The ultimate promise of this integration is opening new commerce. Businesses can sell directly to AI-powered purchasers – from data providers selling to analysis agents, to SaaS vendors licensing to virtual assistants, to e-commerce shops serving shopping bots. AI agents are rapidly becoming the new consumers of the internet. Yet until now, automated purchasing was impractical because agents had no identity or payment path. Ory and Skyfire are changing that by treating agents as first-class digital citizens.
This matters not only for convenience, but for innovation and security. A standards-based approach means companies don’t need proprietary workarounds. Ory Hydra (an open, highly performant OAuth2 server) and Skyfire (an AI-native payments layer) use open protocols (OAuth2.1, OIDC, MCP) that regulators and technologists already trust.
In summary, by leveraging open standards, the Ory–Skyfire solution makes agent transactions as safe as human ones. It provides: verified identities (KYA) so no unknown bots slip through; robust OAuth2 tokens so agents can only perform allowed actions; and an instant payment network so commerce moves at machine speed. Enterprises can therefore welcome agents without fear: their IAM infrastructure remains intact, and they gain fine-grained controls and audit trails over every AI-driven purchase.
Key takeaway
We are at the dawn of a truly agentic economy. Autonomous AI agents are poised to negotiate contracts, consume services, and transact on behalf of their principals. By partnering with Skyfire, Ory extends the familiar OAuth2/OIDC foundation to these agents. This unlocks entirely new revenue streams (selling to AI buyers) while keeping security and compliance first and foremost.The result is a secure, standards-aligned layer for machine-native commerce: AI agents as verifiable, wallet-equipped users in the digital marketplace.
Is your business ready for agentic transactions? Speak with an expert at Ory, or visit Skyfire to learn more.
