CITIC Securities: The payment clearing layer and basic model layer have strong investment certainty.

The research report from CITIC Securities points out that 2026 is a critical window for Agent Commerce to move from concept verification towards protocolization, standardization, and scaling landing. Agent Commerce is not just a partial upgrade of traditional e-commerce functions, but a major infrastructure transformation for the consumption internet in the AI era. AI Agents will start to take on end-to-end transaction functions such as understanding demand, product selection, price comparisons, decision-making, ordering, and payment, shifting the commercial operation logic from "people finding goods" to "demand equals delivery". From the perspective of the industrial chain, the payment settlement layer and the basic model layer have relatively strong investment certainty, while the platform/entry layer and the tool chain layer have broad development flexibility. We recommend the following order of priorities: 1. Companies with both models and ecosystems; 2. Providers with large model capabilities; 3. Payment and transaction infrastructure; 4. Companies with ecosystem capabilities that are expected to enhance model capabilities and improve Agent Commerce layout; 5. Toolchain service providers.