Evervault Launches Browser Tokens to Secure AI-Powered Agentic Payments and Online Transactions
Evervault has announced the launch of Browser Tokens, a new security product designed to help developers build agentic commerce applications without exposing sensitive payment information, passwords or personal data to AI agents and browser automation providers. The company introduced the product at Money20/20, highlighting an approach that allows AI-driven systems to make purchases, sign in to accounts and complete sensitive online workflows while keeping original confidential information protected.
As AI agents become increasingly capable of performing tasks on behalf of users, businesses are exploring ways to automate shopping, payments and other digital transactions. These applications often require agents to interact directly with merchant websites, navigate checkout processes, authenticate users and submit payment details. However, giving automated systems access to sensitive information can introduce significant security challenges.
Browser Tokens are designed to address this issue by replacing confidential values with short-lived tokens that agents and browser platforms can handle without accessing the original data. When a request passes through Evervault’s browser proxy, the system restores the original information over the network only when the destination has been explicitly approved by the developer.
The launch aims to make agentic commerce more practical by enabling developers to use existing payment cards, account credentials and merchant websites. Rather than requiring businesses to wait for widespread adoption of new payment standards, Browser Tokens provide a way to integrate AI-powered transactions into the web infrastructure already in use.
Growing Demand for Secure Agentic Commerce
AI agents are moving beyond conversational assistance toward completing tasks independently or with limited user intervention. In commerce, these capabilities could allow an agent to search for products, compare prices, access a customer account, select items and complete a purchase based on the user’s instructions.
For these workflows to operate successfully, agents frequently need to interact with systems that were originally designed for people. Merchant websites may require payment card numbers, account passwords, billing information and other personal details before a transaction can be completed.
Providing this information directly to an AI model or browser automation system creates potential exposure points. Sensitive data could pass through prompts, application logs, automation frameworks, browser infrastructure or other components involved in executing a task. Each additional system that handles the original information can increase the complexity of securing the workflow.
These concerns are particularly important for businesses building commercial applications that process payment information. Developers must consider not only whether an agent can complete a transaction but also how confidential data is handled throughout the process.
Evervault’s Browser Tokens are intended to reduce this exposure by separating the information an agent needs to interact with a website from the underlying sensitive data. The agent can work with a token that represents a payment card or credential without receiving the original value.
This design offers developers a way to introduce automation while maintaining tighter controls over the movement of sensitive information. It also addresses a practical challenge for companies seeking to use AI in commerce: enabling automated systems to perform useful tasks without turning the AI agent itself into another repository of confidential customer data.
How Browser Tokens Protect Sensitive Information
Browser Tokens work by substituting sensitive values with short-lived, format-preserving tokens. These substitute values can be used within browser automation workflows while keeping the original payment details or credentials outside the agent’s direct view.
When an AI agent or automation framework interacts with a website, it handles the token rather than the underlying confidential information. The token is designed to serve as a stand-in for the original value, allowing the automated workflow to proceed without exposing the raw data to the agent or browser provider.
The process also includes a controlled mechanism for restoring the original value. When a request is submitted through Evervault’s browser proxy, the original information is restored over the network only for a destination that the developer has explicitly approved.
This destination-based restriction is intended to limit where sensitive information can be used. Instead of allowing an agent to access or transmit an original card number or password wherever it chooses, developers can establish approved destinations for the tokenized data.
The short-lived nature of Browser Tokens provides another layer of control. By limiting how long a token remains valid, developers can reduce the opportunity for an agent or another system to reuse a token beyond the intended task.
Together, these capabilities are designed to make sensitive-data handling more controlled in automated browsing environments. The agent can continue performing its assigned workflow, while the original information remains subject to restrictions defined by the developer.
Supporting Existing Payment Cards and Checkout Systems
One of the central features of Browser Tokens is their compatibility with existing payment card workflows. Developers do not necessarily need to replace conventional cards or redesign the checkout experience to use the product.
Payment forms often perform validation before accepting a card number. These checks can include card-number length, Bank Identification Number (BIN) recognition and the Luhn algorithm, which is commonly used to identify incorrectly entered card numbers.
Evervault states that Browser Tokens remain compatible with these common checkout validations. The format-preserving approach allows tokenized card values to work with validation processes that expect card-number-like inputs.
This compatibility is important because online merchants use a broad range of checkout systems, payment service providers and website architectures. Requiring every merchant to implement a new payment interface could make agentic commerce difficult to deploy at scale.
By working with existing checkout flows, Browser Tokens are intended to reduce the need for merchant-side changes. Developers can build automation around websites that already accept conventional payment cards rather than depending on a new checkout experience being available everywhere.
The approach could be useful for applications in which an agent needs to purchase goods or services from multiple merchants. Instead of designing a separate integration for every checkout system, developers can work within existing browser-based workflows while applying controls to the sensitive information used in those transactions.
However, compatibility with common validation checks does not mean that every merchant or payment processor will necessarily accept every tokenized workflow. Actual operation can depend on the destination website, its payment controls and the developer’s implementation.
Browser Tokens Extend Beyond Payment Card Data
Although payments are a central use case, Browser Tokens are also designed to protect other sensitive values, including passwords.
Many agentic workflows require more than entering a card number into a checkout form. An agent may need to sign in to an existing customer account before it can access saved payment methods, review an order or complete a purchase.
Passing a user’s actual password through an AI model or hosted browser can create additional security concerns. Account credentials may provide access to personal information, order histories, stored addresses and other account functions beyond the immediate transaction.
Browser Tokens allow developers to use a substitute password during an automated login workflow. The agent interacts with the stand-in value, while the original credential is handled through Evervault’s controlled process.
This capability can support a workflow in which an agent logs in to a merchant account and pays with a card already stored there. The user does not necessarily need to provide the original password or payment card details directly to the agent for the automation to proceed.
The broader significance is that sensitive-data protection can extend across multiple stages of a transaction. Rather than focusing exclusively on the checkout form, developers can use the tokenization approach for account access and other browser-based activities that involve confidential information.
For businesses building AI assistants for shopping, travel bookings, subscriptions or other online services, this type of functionality could help simplify the handling of sensitive information across connected workflows.
Integration With Browser Automation Platforms
Evervault says Browser Tokens work with existing browser and automation platforms, including Playwright-based environments and hosted browser providers such as Browserbase.
Browser automation tools enable software to interact with websites by performing actions such as opening pages, entering information, clicking buttons and submitting forms. These tools are useful for testing, workflow automation and applications in which AI agents need to navigate online services.
As more developers build agents that can operate browsers, the infrastructure supporting those agents becomes an important part of the security model. If confidential information is exposed to the browser automation environment, the security of the overall application may depend on how that environment stores, processes and logs data.
Browser Tokens are intended to reduce the need for the agent or browser platform to handle original sensitive values. By using substitute tokens, developers can separate the automation layer from the underlying payment information and credentials.
Support for familiar automation environments may also make adoption more straightforward for development teams that already use browser-based tools. Instead of building an entirely new automation system, developers can incorporate the tokenization approach into existing workflows, subject to the product’s integration requirements.
This compatibility could be especially relevant to companies experimenting with agentic commerce, where developers need to balance rapid product development with safeguards around payments and account access.
Developer Controls for Destinations and Token Lifetimes
Browser Tokens include controls that allow developers to restrict tokens to approved hostnames and short expiration periods.
Hostname restrictions are designed to limit where a token can be used. A token intended for a particular merchant or approved destination should not be freely reusable across unrelated websites. This helps reduce the risk of sensitive information being disclosed or used outside the workflow for which it was issued.
Expiration controls provide a separate safeguard. By setting a short validity period, developers can reduce the window during which a token might be reused if it is exposed or retained beyond its intended purpose.
These controls are important in automated environments because agents can perform multiple actions and interact with different websites during a single task. A workflow may also involve third-party browser services or other infrastructure that developers do not fully control.
Restricting the token’s destination and duration can help narrow the potential impact of unintended use. The approach also gives developers a way to define boundaries around how an agent handles information rather than relying solely on the agent to follow instructions.
Such restrictions are not a substitute for a complete security program. Developers still need to consider authorization, user consent, secure implementation, transaction confirmation and the handling of failures. Nevertheless, destination and expiration controls provide additional mechanisms for limiting the use of sensitive data in agentic workflows.
Addressing Payment Security and Compliance Challenges
Payment card information is subject to security requirements that can affect how businesses design and operate their applications. When raw card data passes through an AI model, automation framework or hosted browser, additional components may become involved in handling that information.
This can increase the complexity of determining which systems require security controls and how data is protected throughout the transaction lifecycle. Developers must understand where sensitive values enter an application, which systems process them and whether logs, monitoring tools or other services retain them.
By keeping original values out of agents and browser infrastructure, Browser Tokens are intended to reduce the number of places where raw sensitive information is exposed. That design may help developers limit the systems that directly handle confidential payment data.
However, using tokenization does not automatically establish compliance with every applicable security framework. Businesses must evaluate their complete implementation, service-provider relationships and operational controls against relevant requirements, including applicable Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard obligations.
The practical benefit of the product is its focus on reducing unnecessary exposure while enabling existing online workflows. Developers can seek to maintain a more controlled data flow without requiring merchants to replace their established payment systems.
Evervault’s Position on the Future of Agentic Payments
Shane Curran, founder and chief executive officer of Evervault, said that agentic payments should be treated as payments rather than as a completely separate category of commerce that requires every merchant to adopt a new technical standard.
“Agentic payments are just payments,” Curran said, explaining that AI agents will become useful in commerce only if they can act without creating additional places where sensitive data is exposed. He also emphasized the need to avoid requiring merchants to adopt one of several emerging agentic payment standards before developers can build practical applications.
According to Curran, Browser Tokens allow developers to work with existing cards, credentials and websites while keeping plaintext data out of agents, prompts, logs and browser infrastructure.
The statement reflects a key challenge facing the agentic commerce market. While new payment protocols may offer specialized ways for AI agents to initiate or complete transactions, adoption can take time and may vary across merchants, card networks, issuers and regions.
An approach that works with existing web infrastructure could give developers another way to introduce agent-led transactions while broader industry standards continue to develop.
Network-Agnostic Approach to AI Commerce
Payment networks are also developing initiatives intended to support AI-driven commerce. Evervault points to Visa Intelligent Commerce and Mastercard Agent Pay as examples of network-led efforts in this area.
These initiatives provide another route for AI commerce, but their availability can depend on the payment network, card issuer, geographic market and merchant support.
Browser Tokens are positioned as a network-agnostic compatibility layer for the existing web. The product is designed to work with current payment cards and account-access workflows without requiring merchants to introduce a new checkout experience specifically for agentic transactions.
This distinction may matter to developers seeking to build applications that interact with a broad range of websites. A network-specific initiative may be useful where the necessary participants and infrastructure are supported, while a browser-based approach can address workflows on existing websites.
The two approaches are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Developers may choose different methods depending on the transaction, supported payment infrastructure and requirements of their applications.
Browser Tokens’ stated focus is to enable agentic workflows using the web and credentials that already exist, with tokenization and destination restrictions helping to control the exposure of sensitive information.
Ramp and Natural Among Early Customers
Ramp and Natural are among the first customers building with Browser Tokens, according to Evervault.
The early adoption indicates interest from companies exploring ways to incorporate automated agents into financial and commercial workflows. As these applications develop, companies need methods that allow agents to complete tasks while limiting their access to confidential data.
Walt Leung, co-founder and chief product officer at Natural, described how the product enables agents to complete checkout using tokenized information, with the actual card details substituted only when the request reaches the merchant.
“Agents complete checkout with tokenized data, and the real card is only swapped in when it reaches the merchant,” Leung said. He added that this approach could help agentic commerce scale across the existing web without requiring every merchant to adopt new protocols.
Natural’s perspective highlights the importance of interoperability for automated commerce. If every merchant had to change its checkout system before an AI agent could transact, developers could face a fragmented environment that limits the usefulness of their products.
A token-based method that works with existing websites may help reduce that barrier, although individual implementations will still depend on supported integrations and the security requirements of each workflow.
What the Launch Means for Developers and Businesses
The launch of Browser Tokens comes as developers and businesses explore how AI agents can move from providing recommendations to executing transactions. For these applications to become practical, they must address the security implications of allowing software to interact with accounts, payment forms and personal information.
Evervault’s product focuses on a specific part of that challenge: preventing agents and browser platforms from directly handling original sensitive values while still allowing them to perform tasks that require those values.
Its short-lived, format-preserving tokens, approved-hostname restrictions and controlled restoration of original data are designed to support browser-based automation across existing payment and login flows. Compatibility with Playwright-based environments and hosted browser providers may also help development teams incorporate the approach into their existing technology stacks.
For merchants, the approach is intended to reduce the need for immediate changes to established checkout experiences. For developers, it offers a way to explore AI-driven purchasing and account access while placing additional controls around sensitive data.
As agentic commerce evolves, security, interoperability and merchant acceptance will remain important factors in determining how quickly automated transactions become widely available. Browser Tokens provide one approach to these challenges by connecting AI-powered browser workflows with existing web infrastructure while limiting direct exposure of payment cards, passwords and other confidential information.
Source link: https://www.businesswire.com
