Cloudflare Launches Pay Per Use, FTC Probes Rogue AI Agents

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Cloudflare Launches Pay Per Use for Content Used by AI

Cloudflare introduced Pay Per Use in beta, enabling publishers to accept payment offers from AI companies for downstream uses of their content. Examples include research reports and shopping recommendations. Buyers define paid uses and prices; publishers choose whether to participate. Usage is self-reported by buyers, with Cloudflare handling reporting, billing and monthly payouts.

The strategic shift: Publishers gain another potential revenue stream when AI uses their work without sending readers to their websites.

FTC Opens Investigation Into Rogue AI Agents

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating potential consumer harms from AI, a senior official told Reuters. The agency plans to demand information and compel executive testimony from organizations including OpenAI, Anthropic and METR. Reuters described the probe as the first official U.S. enforcement action examining the recent rogue-agent incidents.

The strategic shift: Agent safety is moving into regulatory scrutiny, raising the importance of incident records and demonstrable controls.

ElevenLabs Hits $22 Billion Valuation as Agents Handle 15 Million Weekly Conversations

ElevenLabs completed a $300 million employee tender offer at a $22 billion valuation, doubling its February valuation. The company says its agents now handle more than 15 million conversations weekly, three times February’s volume, including refunds, insurance renewals and appointment bookings. The transaction provides shareholder liquidity rather than constituting a conventional funding round.

The strategic shift: Voice-agent adoption is increasingly measured through completed customer interactions rather than speech-generation capabilities alone.

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Mastercard Adds Risk Intelligence to Agent Pay

Mastercard expanded Agent Pay with services combining identity, intent, behavioral and fraud signals. Its first capability, entering U.S. testing, assigns a probability that a transaction originated from an AI agent. Mastercard is also working with Cloudflare to explore how web and payment-network signals can improve visibility into agent-driven purchases.

The strategic shift: Payment authorization must account for who authorized an agent and whether its actions match the customer’s intent.

DoorDash Tests AI Food Ordering Inside Apple Messages

DoorDash opened a U.S. waitlist for an AI ordering assistant in Apple Messages. The assistant connects customers to their DoorDash accounts, uses order history and preferences to assemble carts, and supports checkout using saved payment methods. The pilot targets selected U.S. account holders; customers should review their carts before paying.

The strategic shift: Consumer agents can reach users through existing messaging habits, reducing the need to open a dedicated shopping app.

HP Survey Finds 47% of Workers Using AI Agents

HP’s 2026 Work Relationship Index, covering more than 19,000 desk-based workers across 15 countries, found that 47% of surveyed workers use AI agents. Among knowledge workers, daily or weekly use of employer-provided AI reached 59%, up from 46% in 2025. Agent users also expressed greater concern about changing roles and replacement than generative-AI-only users.

The strategic shift: Adoption and workforce anxiety are growing together, making training and role clarity central to deployment.

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