Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how people search, decide, and interact online, with systems already recommending products, comparing options, and synthesizing information at remarkable speed. The next phase is autonomy — a future in which AI agents not only assist users but act on their behalf.

For OEN Technology Co., this question sits at the core of its business.

Founded in 2020 by Hsiao Hsin-cheng, OEN was born at the intersection of software engineering, civic participation, and fundraising. Hsiao, a former software engineer in New York’s startup ecosystem, returned to Taiwan in 2018 and later ran for city council. That experience exposed a structural gap. Campaigns, nonprofits, religious organizations, and cultural groups all relied heavily on public trust, yet lacked digital tools designed for their unique needs.

“Most software is built for commercial transactions,” Hsiao says. “But when you are asking people to support a cause, a candidate, or a community, the transaction is fundamentally different.”

OEN was founded to serve what Hsiao calls the “oen economy,” a term derived from a Japanese word meaning to support or cheer on. In this model, transactions are non-equivalent: donors contribute because they believe in a cause rather than receiving a product in return — a distinction that requires systems to be designed differently.

“In these transactions, trust is everything,” he says. “If people feel uncertainty or risk, the entire model collapses.”

Over five years, OEN has grown into a core digital infrastructure provider for this trust-based economy. Its platform integrates payment processing, donor and supporter management, compliance tools, and outreach functions into a single system. Today, it serves political groups, nonprofit organizations, temples and churches, universities running alumni donation drives, music festivals, and independent artists. Large-scale events such as Kaohsiung’s Megaport Festival have relied on OEN for multiple consecutive years, while religious institutions and civic organizations use the platform to bring transparency to fundraising that was once largely cash-based.

As AI capabilities accelerate, the relevance of this infrastructure has only increased. In mid-September 2025, Google Cloud introduced the Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), signaling a future in which AI agents may initiate transactions on behalf of users.

AI agents can already identify what to buy, when to buy it, and from whom — but in regulated markets like Taiwan, they cannot legally move money. “That final step still requires licensed payment providers operating under local regulation,” Hsiao says.

AP2 standardizes how user intent is expressed and verified, creating a traceable record that an action was explicitly authorized. Hsiao notes that this standardization is especially important in non-commercial transactions such as donations, political contributions, or religious offerings, where scrutiny is high and misunderstandings can have serious consequences.

“When someone donates, there is no market exchange to justify the payment,” he says. “From a regulatory perspective, that makes compliance even more critical.”

This belief has shaped OEN’s long-term strategy. The company has invested heavily in security and governance, holding PCI DSS Level 1, ISO 27001, and ISO 27701 certifications.

“In our industry, compliance builds confidence,” he says. “It protects our clients, reassures regulators, and ultimately protects donors and supporters.”

Hsiao currently serves as chair of the Innovation and Security Committee of Taiwan’s Third-Party Payment Association, working alongside other payment processors to prepare the industry for AI-initiated transactions. Making protocols like AP2 viable, he argues, requires coordination across the private sector, regulators, and global technology companies.

Taiwan is well positioned to become a testbed for this next phase of digital commerce. The island combines a strong regulatory framework with a mature payment ecosystem and real-world use cases demanding high trust and transparency.

At the same time, Hsiao is candid about Taiwan’s broader challenges in the AI era. “We manufacture the chips, but we consume the models,” he says. “If we don’t build applications and systems ourselves, we risk losing control over how technology shapes our society.”

OEN’s response has been pragmatic. The company is actively testing new AI tools, training internal models, and strengthening its cybersecurity infrastructure to prepare for a future in which AI agents operate alongside humans. But Hsiao emphasizes that progress must be measured.

“Speed matters, but safety matters more,” he says. “In a trust-based economy, moving carefully is not a weakness. It’s a responsibility.”

In an agent-driven enviornment, licensed payment providers are not intermediaries waiting to be displaced, but essential infrastructure ensuring that autonomy does not come at the cost of accountability.

In that future, the last mile of AI commerce may prove to be the most important of all.