How AI agents could impact mobile gaming monetisation

• Developers could move from fixed subscriptions to intent-driven access, with AI agents negotiating short-term Battle Pass or VIP access.
• Studios will need AI-readable metadata, updated SDKs and platform authentication to support autonomous purchases.

Jonas Martins is director of video gaming and media at Worldline.

In recent years, the conversation around artificial intelligence in gaming has centred on production efficiencies. Generative AI tools are used to speed up behind-the-scenes workflows across the different departments of game studios, and support lifecycle marketing efforts.

This is how Agentic AI has functioned in the gaming industry so far, but looking forward, a new use of AI is on the horizon - Agentic Commerce - and its impact could be felt across both the developer and player base of gaming.

As the name suggests, agentic commerce is the use of AI agents to make purchases. Rather than spending hours going through several webstores to find a specific product, users can ask an AI agent (either their own or the merchants') to find the product for them in seconds, using prompts.

It’s a use of AI that is currently developing, being tested but not completely available to the public, but one that could have wider implications on player behaviour and shopping habits within the gaming sector.

Gaming ecosystems are among the most well-suited environments for agentic commerce. From finding specific games to automation of recurring in-app purchases and subscriptions, there are many uses for how agentic commerce could influence the gaming sector (in particular for mobile games).

To get the most out of this emerging technology, it is vital that developers and publishers are aware of its uses now, to prepare their games for it.

In-app purchases

Many live op games are funded through in-app purchases, either exchanged for in-game currency used to engage with the core gameplay systems or through obtaining ‘stamina’ that allows a player to keep on gaming. This is a prime area where agentic commerce could be utilised by players to make purchases that do not disrupt the game flow.

AI agents could automate mid-game IAPs, like grabbing an emergency stamina refill or purchasing another ten-pull pack, without pulling the player away from the core loop to browse a storefront.

By removing this UI friction, agentic commerce directly tackles player churn at the exact moment of drop-off, seamlessly keeping players in the action while driving higher conversion for the publisher.

However, game developers and players need to ensure there are limitations in place to prevent players susceptible to overspending habits. Having predefined budgets or upper ceilings that the AI agent has to adhere to is one method of preventing this. 

The impact of agentic commerce in this scenario removes friction during gameplay and ensures predictable monetisation flows for developers.

Dynamic subscriptions

Across many forms of media, subscription-based services have become a lucrative way of securing recurring revenue and increasing lifetime value (LTV).

It is most prominently seen in games with a heavy online focus, but can show up in any title through seasonal passes for additional content. With agentic commerce, a more flexible consumption model could emerge, in which access is driven by context and time constraints. 

A developer could set up their battle pass system so that players do not need to commit to a monthly subscription, instead, the agent could dynamically negotiate 24-hour access based on the player’s schedule, authenticated seamlessly through the platform.

This shifts the monetisation model from the current, rigid, monthly or annual billing cycles to an intent-driven framework, where players get the premium benefits of a Battle Pass or VIP tier exclusively on the days they actually log in to play.

For developers, this could allow for dynamic monetisation scaling, where the value of content is determined by demand context rather than a static subscription model. As a result, subscription models evolve into adaptive access frameworks that align with usage patterns instead of fixed billing cycles. 

Sale hunting

Lastly, AI agents could perform traditional store tracking for the player to ensure the best possible deals. In gaming, players often know exactly what they want ahead of time and the hold-up could be timing or game cost.

If a player is interested in a title, but that moment in time isn’t ideal for them to make a purchase, an AI agent could be given instructions on when to buy the title in the future. This could be if the game gets discounted or goes on sale for a specific price, or the second a player completes the previous game, it purchases the next one.

For this to work, app storefronts must feature AI-readable metadata, backed by secure, platform-level authentication to allow autonomous purchasing. While the heavy lifting here falls on platform holders, mobile studios will still need to ensure their in-game economics and SDKs are optimised to handle external, agent-driven triggers.

The wider implications of agentic commerce within mobile gaming provides ample opportunities for developers to generate revenue and increase LTV by appealing to player convenience.

Immersion and engagement can be kept high by automating parts of mobile gaming that are often removed from the user experience, such as visiting in-game stores or external apps to make purchases. For live op games in particular, where keeping players engaged is of major importance to success, tools like agentic commerce can keep immersion high.

However, every game on the market right now has not been created with agentic commerce in mind, as it's a tool that is extremely new and not widely available.

If a game isn’t expecting an AI agent it could result in several issues that frustrate the player - like blocking players from buying in-game currencies or purchasing the wrong in-game item, as the AI was unclear on what it needed to buy (or when). These are the types of concerns that live op teams need to consider when implementing their monetisation strategies, in the wake of agentic commerce. 

That is why it’s important to understand how new technology could impact the gaming industry, so studios can prepare for it before it becomes mainstream.

Understanding what agentic commerce offers and testing it now will help future-proof your title, which in the mobile gaming market is vital for long-term success. Many teams are already planning around how AI is being used to make game development more efficient, but developers need to also be aware about how it will make the player experience more efficient as well.

Designing exclusively for human interaction is taking a backseat going forward. Developers need to factor in autonomous machine-to-machine communication and trade if they want their game to succeed. Moving forward, traditional competitive advantages tied to front-end interface design will steadily diminish.

Future market leadership will instead belong to organisations that prioritise robust, programmable infrastructure that is easily readable by AI agents, working on behalf of players. By embedding automated transaction compatibility into core systems today, forward-thinking developers will secure their position at the forefront of a new phase in digital trade, where commerce is autonomous and intent-based.

To prepare for this new phase of AI commerce, game developers should start by optimising their game's infrastructure for machine-to-machine communication. This means updating the SDKs and ensuring all storefronts and in-game items feature clear, AI-readable metadata that AI agents can easily process.

Simultaneously, studios should rethink their monetisation frameworks by prototyping dynamic, usage-based subscriptions and background in-app purchase flows that prioritise player immersion with automatic in-app purchases.

Crucially, as developers build these frictionless purchasing pathways, they must also implement robust player safeguards, such as strict, predefined spending ceilings that AI agents must obey.

By taking these proactive steps now, from auditing current live ops systems, moving beyond human-exclusive UI design and testing AI -driven transactions, studios can successfully future-proof their titles for the impending arrival of agentic commerce.