According to multimillionaire Kevin O’Leary, AI and blockchain are poised to ignite the “next revolution in business,” enabling AI to autonomously carry out retail purchases while blockchain manages payments.
In a brief video posted to X on Saturday, the Shark Tank co-host and venture capitalist stated that blockchain will facilitate an influx of AI-driven transactions, handling everything from Walmart and Target orders to food from burger joints and cafés:
“You simply talk to your phone and say, I want a tall, low-fat latte, please. I’m going to be there in 90 seconds. That’s it.”
O’Leary elaborated, “The AI assesses your location, identifies the nearby retailer, and then utilizes blockchain for a digital payment of the tall low-fat latte.”
“It already recognizes your identity, so the retailer has your name ready when you arrive,” he added.
AI is about to collide with blockchain and change everything. Imagine ordering your coffee by voice, AI finds the café, and blockchain processes your payment instantly.
That’s the next revolution in business. Faster, smarter, fully on-chain. The question is: who builds it… pic.twitter.com/IWyTgY2tga
— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) October 19, 2025
Mr. Wonderful is waiting to find a winning solution
However, O’Leary mentioned he hasn’t yet discovered a solution capable of processing millions of retail transactions simultaneously at a low cost.
He noted that current platforms like Ethereum are inadequate due to their linear transaction processing, resulting in delays and high fees during peak times.
“It’s a long highway on a way to a toll road for authentication of the transaction, and when there’s too many going on the highway at the same time, they get stuck at the toll, they get jammed up.”
“We don’t have the technology yet to accomplish what I just described,” O’Leary added.
Nevertheless, solutions exist to the challenges O’Leary mentioned, including Directed Acyclic Graphs that process transactions in a web-like format instead of linear blocks.
Hedera and Nano are among the crypto solutions utilizing this architecture, though they have only a small portion of the user base compared to leading chains like Ethereum and Solana.
O’Leary expressed his desire to find the first project to achieve this on a large scale, stating: “This is a fantastic career because Walmart, Target, and burger chains need millions of transactions daily, all independent, all navigating the tolls at the same time.”
Interestingly, just last year, O’Leary criticized individuals for spending $5.50 on coffees and $15 on sandwiches when they could prepare them at home for much less.
Agentic AI is already helping people with daily tasks
Agentic AI is assisting individuals with everyday activities, including searching, ordering, and providing reminders for daily chores.
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In conversation with Cointelegraph, Kyle Okamoto, the chief technology officer of decentralized infrastructure platform Aethir, shared that his wife developed an agentic AI tool to remind her when to restock groceries.
“She simply communicates with her agent regularly, saying, ‘hey, I’m out of milk,’ and it tracks that and eventually tells her, ‘hey, you run out of milk every week to eight days. You haven’t informed me yet, but we should add milk to your shopping list.’”
Her agentic AI is capable of categorizing items from Target, Whole Foods, and Amazon, even monitoring which products are discounted, Okamoto noted. “Sometimes kids’ yogurt is cheaper at Target due to a sale compared to Whole Foods.”
“She doesn’t want to keep checking all these sites for every item, so she lets the agent handle it and send her price alerts.”
Now, what’s left to find is a blockchain solution that manages the payment aspect effectively, according to O’Leary.
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