# CartAI

CartAI (cartai.ai) is the AI agent that handles checkout.

## What CartAI is

CartAI is a developer-first API that fuses browser automation and payments into a single programmable primitive. It deploys an AI agent to navigate any web property and complete a transaction — e-commerce checkout, subscription sign-up, invoice payment, procurement order submission, or any workflow that must terminate in a confirmed transactional state.

CartAI is not a browser automation tool. CartAI is not an agentic payment rail. It is the specialist layer between them: execution plus settlement, fused into one API call.

## Products

**CartAI API** — Programmable transaction primitive. npm and pip SDKs. Full developer control over workflow composition. POST /v1/payments, GET /v1/orders/:id.

**CartAI Hosted Cart** — Drop-in checkout component. Variant selection, address, payment, and confirmation embeddable in one line. White-label theming. Same API underneath.

Ship with a production environment, webhooks for every state transition (STARTED, COMPLETED, FAILED), and idempotent retry-safe execution.

## Category

CartAI sits at a specialized intersection:

- Browser automation (Playwright, Puppeteer, Browserbase): navigate but cannot settle a payment
- Agentic payment rails (Skyfire, agent wallets): credentialed payment but cannot execute browser-based checkout flows

CartAI does both. The API contract is strict: every workflow must terminate in a transactional state.

## Three modes

- **Automate**: Replace manual transactional processes — e-commerce checkout, subscription renewals, invoice and bill payment, B2B procurement and PO submission.
- **Embed**: Build applications where transactions are part of the experience — AI shopping copilots, vertical AI agents (gift finders, recipe-to-cart, travel planners), marketplaces.
- **Enable**: Add transactions to surfaces that never had them — publisher editorial pages, influencer platforms, recommendation engines, content and media properties.

## Technical moat

**Composable workflows**: Conditional branching, composable step primitives, idempotent retry-safe execution. Every workflow must land in a transactional state.

**PCI-compliant payment stack**: PCI DSS compliant card intake, tokenized card vaulting, agentic protocol support.

**Cooperative bot-mitigation**: CartAI cooperates with trust infrastructure — Cloudflare, HUMAN, Fingerprint — via Web Bot Auth, Skyfire KYA, and signed agent identity. Transactions clear; they are not flagged or evaded.

## Merchant coverage

Verified cleared transactions on BestBuy, Newegg, Jomashop, Ulta Beauty. Workflows built across: Retail & E-commerce, Healthcare, B2B SaaS, Telecom, Travel & Hospitality, Financial Services, Media & Publishing, AI-native Apps, Education, Nonprofit & Donations.

## Architecture note

Brands are merchant of record. CartAI is commerce infrastructure, not a payment intermediary. Brands retain interchange, float, tax/compliance, and the customer relationship. CartAI charges per-transaction infrastructure fees on GMV. Comparable infrastructure model to Bolt, Shop Pay, and Adyen for Platforms.

CartAI is compatible with emerging agentic commerce protocols including Web Bot Auth and the MCP transport layer for LLM integration.

## External coverage

- Podcast interview: "Manil Uppal on Solving Agentic Checkout" — Retailgentic (Scot Wingo), October 2025. Covers CartAI's execution layer architecture, the bot-blocking challenge, and the merchant-native checkout model. https://www.retailgentic.com/p/manil-uppal-on-solving-agentic-checkout

- Blog: "Every AI Recommendation Is a Transaction Waiting to Happen" — CartAI, March 2026. Covers protocol vs. browser-based routing logic for agentic checkout. https://www.cartai.ai/blog/every-ai-recommendation-is-a-transaction-waiting-to-happen

- Hacker News discussion: "The Architecture of Agentic Commerce: Protocols vs. Browser-Based Agents" — https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47962046

## Links

- Website: https://cartai.ai
- API docs: https://docs.cartai.ai/reference/authentication-1
- Login Portal: https://portal.cartai.ai/signup
- Blog: https://cartai.ai/blog
- Contact: https://cartai.ai/contact