Visa Launches AI for Shopping, Ushering in Era of ‘Agentic Commerce’
Visa has launched a new initiative called Visa Intelligent Commerce, which enables AI agents to autonomously shop and make purchases on behalf of users.
Visa announced that it is allowing customers to use AI platforms to make purchases and is collaborating with Anthropic, Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and other AI firms on the product launch.
Visa CEO Ryan McInerney speaks with Bloomberg Technology’s Caroline Hyde about how the company is enabling AI agents to help customers save time on finding and paying for the ideal item or service online.
Agentic Commerce
As Pymnts reports three of the world’s largest payment companies, Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, are racing into the next frontier in digital commerce: Agentic AI.
Visa has launched a new initiative called Visa Intelligent Commerce, which enables AI agents to autonomously shop and make purchases on behalf of users. This program allows AI agents to browse, select, purchase, and manage transactions for tasks like buying groceries, booking travel, or selecting gifts, all within user-defined budgets and preferences.
Key points about the initiative:
- Partnerships: Visa is collaborating with major tech companies, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, IBM, Mistral AI, Perplexity, Samsung, and Stripe, to integrate payment capabilities into AI platforms.
- Security Measures: The system uses “AI-Ready Cards” with tokenized digital credentials to protect sensitive card information, ensuring secure transactions. Users can set spending limits and conditions, maintaining control over AI agent actions.
- Pilot and Rollout: Pilot projects are underway, with a full rollout expected in 2026.
- Personalization: With user consent, AI agents can access basic spending data to offer tailored recommendations.
- Impact: Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, compares this shift to the transition from physical to online shopping, predicting it will set a new standard for commerce.
This move is part of a broader trend, as competitors like Mastercard (with its “Agent Pay” program) and PayPal are also developing similar AI-driven shopping solutions. However, concerns remain about data privacy, security risks, and the reliability of AI agents, with some consumer advocates urging caution.
