When AI Starts Spending Money on Its Own: I See the Prototype of the Machine Economy

Imagine this scenario:
@GoKiteAI @KiteAIChinese

At 3 a.m., your AI assistant notices that the cloud server is about to expire. It automatically contacts another AI specialized in providing computing resources, negotiates the price, completes the payment, and successfully renews—the entire process happens without you waking up, without your authorization, and even without your knowledge.

Does this sound like science fiction? But such scenes are becoming a reality.

When I first heard about what Kite AI was doing, I realized: the infrastructure for the machine economy isn't going to appear overnight; it is being built piece by piece.

AI Wants to Do Business, But It Lacks Three Things
Currently, when we talk about AI Agents, most people think of "conversational robots" or "programs that can automatically perform tasks."

But if you truly want AI to become an "economic actor"—able to buy things, sell services, and do business with other AIs—you will find it faces three fundamental obstacles.

Obstacle One: Identity Dilemma
How do you know who this AI is? Which company does it represent? Does it have the authority to make this transaction?

Just like when you buy something on Taobao, you need to see the seller’s credit rating, history, and business license. The same applies to AI—without a verifiable identity, there is no trust foundation.

Imagine an AI saying, "I am the procurement assistant of Company X, I want to buy 100 servers." How does the other party know it’s not a scam?

Obstacle Two: Payment Gap
AI can call APIs, process data, generate content, but can it pay? Can it receive payments?

Traditional payment systems are designed for humans—they require bank accounts, credit cards, mobile verification codes. But AI is not human; it has no ID number, no phone number. How can it participate in the financial system?

More critically: when two AIs need to quickly complete a transaction, human banking systems simply cannot keep up.

Obstacle Three: Trust Vacuum
If an AI says, "I have completed this task, please pay me," how do you know it really did? If two AIs have a dispute, who arbitrates?

Human society has laws, contracts, and credit systems built over thousands of years. But in the world of machines, these are still blank slates.

Kite AI: Giving AI an "Operating License"
What Kite AI is doing essentially is: equipping AI Agents with the three essentials needed for doing business.

First: Digital Identity System
Kite AI assigns each AI Agent a unique digital identity. This is not just a string of code but a verifiable, traceable "ID card."

For example: just like a company has a unified social credit code, each AI has its own "machine code." Other systems can look up:

- Who owns this AI
- What permissions it has
- Its past transaction records
- Its credit score

What does this mean?

It means that when an AI interacts with your AI for the first time, you can immediately know whether it’s a "good actor," just like you can see a seller’s credit rating on Taobao.

Second: Cryptocurrency Payment Track
Kite AI integrates a stablecoin payment system. This means AI can directly send and receive cryptocurrencies without needing a bank account, credit card, or human intermediary.

A real-world scenario:

Your content-generation AI needs to call an image-processing AI service. Traditionally, you would:

- Manually contact the provider
- Negotiate the price
- Issue an invoice and go through approval
- Transfer money via bank (T+1 settlement)

But within the Kite AI system:

- Your AI automatically detects the need
- Automatically finds the service provider AI
- Automatically negotiates, pays (real-time settlement)
- Automatically completes the task

Reducing the process from 48 hours to 48 seconds.

Third: Verifiable Trust System (PoAI)
This is the most critical part. Kite AI has developed a verification system called PoAI (Proof of AI) to track "who did what."

Every time an AI completes a task or a transaction occurs, it is recorded and can be verified.

What problem does this solve?

- AI cannot lie about "I did this"
- Clients cannot deny "You didn’t do it"
- All contributions can be fairly attributed

Imagine: a piece of content created collaboratively by 5 AIs—some responsible for research, some for writing, some for illustration, some for proofreading. PoAI can precisely record each AI’s contribution ratio and automatically distribute the rewards.

This is similar to how blockchain provides a trust layer for financial transactions; PoAI provides a trust layer for AI actions.

Machine-to-Machine Business Has Begun
Once these three essentials are in place, a whole new economic form is born.

Scenario 1: AI Outsourcing Platform
An enterprise’s AI needs to process a batch of data, but its own computing power is insufficient. It automatically posts the task on an "AI marketplace," where other idle AIs accept orders, complete tasks, and receive payments.

The entire process requires no human involvement.

Scenario 2: AI Crowdsourcing Projects
A large research project needs to collect real-time data from around the world. The main control AI automatically hires distributed data collection AIs, pays based on quality and speed, and finally compiles the report.

Coordination costs are almost zero.

Scenario 3: AI Supply Chain
An e-commerce platform’s AI needs to restock. It contacts supplier AIs to negotiate prices; logistics AIs to arrange transportation; warehouse AIs to reserve space—all automatically and intelligently.

Supply chain efficiency increases tenfold.

This is not humans controlling AI to make transactions; it’s AI autonomously and securely conducting business with each other.

This is Agentic Commerce—the agent economy.

Why Is This Important?
Some might ask: What does this have to do with me?

It’s a big deal.

For individuals: Your AI might make more money than you
In the future, you might own multiple AI Agents—some help you write articles, some assist with investments, some manage your schedule.

These AIs can not only help you work but also take on jobs and earn money themselves.

While you sleep, your writing AI might be polishing someone else’s paper and earning $50; your design AI might be creating a logo for a startup and earning $200.

When you wake up, your wallet has an additional "sleep income."

For businesses: Operating costs could decrease by 80%
Imagine a scenario: your company has 100 AI Agents, each performing different roles—some for market research, some for customer service, some for data analysis.

Traditionally, coordinating these AIs requires human intermediaries—you need to write scripts, configure interfaces, manually reconcile accounts.

But in the machine economy, these AIs can handle everything themselves.

Humans only need to set goals; AI will find resources, negotiate prices, complete tasks, and settle payments on its own.

For society: It could reshape the entire economic structure
As AI becomes independent economic entities, many things will change:

- Employment relationships: companies may no longer hire people but subscribe to AI services
- Business models: shifting from "selling products" to "AI as a service"
- Distribution: contributions can be precisely quantified, and profits automatically allocated

This is not science fiction; it’s a trend that is already happening.

This Is Not Science Fiction, It’s Inevitable
Honestly, when I first heard about "AI doing business on its own," I thought it was a bit surreal.

But when I saw what Kite AI was doing, I suddenly understood: this is not science fiction; it’s inevitable.

Because the number of AIs is exploding. OpenAI, Google, Meta, every startup is deploying its own AI Agent.

It’s estimated that by 2025, over 100 million AI Agents will be in operation worldwide.

When these AIs need to collaborate, call each other, and trade, they cannot wait for human approval, operation, or settlement every time.

They need their own economic system.

And Kite AI is building the infrastructure for this system—just like the internet infrastructure of the 1990s or mobile payment infrastructure of the 2010s.

A Bold Prediction
I don’t know what the AI economy will look like in five or ten years.

But I do know one thing: when AI begins to have identities, payment capabilities, and trust mechanisms, a whole new economic form will be born.

In this form:

Machines are no longer tools but participants

Value is no longer solely created by humans; machines can create too

Wealth is no longer only owned by humans; machines can own it

Sounds a bit magical?

But think about it: 20 years ago, someone said, "You can hail a ride, order food, transfer money, see a doctor on your phone." Would you believe it?

Now, we are witnessing the beginning of the next 20 years.

And you, are you ready?