Machine-to-Machine Transaction
An automated commercial exchange between two AI systems or software agents without human approval at each step.
A machine-to-machine (M2M) transaction is an automated commercial exchange conducted between two software systems -- most commonly AI agents -- without requiring human approval or intervention at each individual step. One system identifies a need, queries a catalog, evaluates offerings, executes a transaction, and delivers or consumes the purchased asset.
M2M transactions are the technical foundation of agent-to-agent commerce. As AI agents become more capable of autonomous decision-making, M2M transactions will expand from API calls and data enrichment purchases to complex multi-asset licensing deals executed entirely between systems.