LG CNS, BOK test AI-powered digital currency payments

LG CNS' headquarters in southern Seoul (LG CNS)

LG CNS said Thursday that it has demonstrated South Korea’s first artificial intelligence-enabled digital currency payment system, developed in collaboration with the Bank of Korea.

The demonstration was conducted under the central bank’s “Project Hangang,” a pilot initiative launched last year to test deposit tokens as a stepping stone toward a potential central bank digital currency. The project is designed to explore next-generation payment infrastructure in which AI agents can autonomously execute transactions on a digital currency platform.

For the pilot, LG CNS and the Bank of Korea simulated a real-world commerce scenario involving a digital content creator.

According to LG CNS, content creators often face inefficiencies due to repeated logins, searches and payment procedures across multiple platforms when purchasing assets such as images or background music. The newly tested system applies so-called “agentic AI” to streamline these processes by allowing AI agents to act on behalf of users.

In the demonstration, AI agents representing buyers and sellers communicated autonomously. The buyer agent searched for required content, compared prices and completed purchases, while payments were executed through the transfer of deposit tokens between digital wallets within parameters pre-approved by the user.

“Agentic commerce, where AI acts on behalf of consumers from product search to payment, is gaining global attention,” an LG CNS official said. “This demonstration shows that AI-driven payments using blockchain-based digital currency can be implemented within an automated payment framework.”

The Bank of Korea said it would continue its research to assess whether the infrastructure could support a wider range of digital payment instruments, including stablecoins.