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Sau Sheong Chang
Deputy Chief Executive & Chief Technology Officer (speaking in personal capacity)
GovTech Singapore
Sau Sheong Chang is Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Technology Officer at GovTech Singapore, a software engineer and author of programming books including Go Web Programming. He writes a regular technology column for The Business Times and explores how AI agents are changing software development, engineering teams and accountability. His career spans technology leadership in government and the private sector, including roles at Temasek, SP Group, PayPal, HP Labs, Garena and Yahoo. He joins this panel in his personal capacity, offering a technologist's perspective. His views are his own and do not represent GovTech, which has no position on agentic payments.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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3:30–4:00pmThu 19 NovPolicy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen
Technology Rewiring
Agentic Payments: Are Our Rails Ready?
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Jesse McWatersEVP, Head of Global PolicyMastercard
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Jo YeoDirectorMonetary Authority of SingaporeModerator
About this session
For decades, payment systems have been designed around human behaviour. AI agents play by different rules. Unlike humans, agents do not care about rewards, interfaces or brand loyalty. They optimise for speed, cost, and reliability.
As agents begin making payments on behalf of users and businesses, they may transact at a scale and frequency never seen before, paying for everything from AI services and digital content to machine-to-machine interactions. The result could be millions of low-value transactions that challenge the economics and design of today's payment infrastructure.
Are our payment rails ready for this future? As PayNow Gen2 considers capabilities relevant to agentic commerce, this session explores whether existing payment rails can adapt, what role programmable money could play, and how payment infrastructure must evolve when machines start choosing how to pay. -
