Artificial Intelligence is transforming the way we shop and pay. Visa is leveraging the power of its network and its decades of experience to bring trust and security to AI-powered commerce, bringing to life Visa Intelligent Commerce, which enables AI to find and buy.

This is an innovative initiative that opens Visa’s payment network to the developers and engineers who are building the foundational AI agents that are transforming commerce.

“Soon, people will have AI agents that will browse, select, purchase, and manage on their behalf,” according to Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa. “These agents will need to be trusted with payments, not just by users, but also by banks and merchants.”

Similar to the transition from physical to online shopping, and from online to mobile shopping, Visa is setting a new standard for a new era of commerce. Now, with Visa Intelligent Commerce, AI agents can find, purchase, and pay on behalf of consumers according to their pre-selected preferences. Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest.

Creating a Trusted Future for AI Commerce

Millions of people will soon rely on AI to find the perfect sweater, search for a new vacation destination, or complete a shopping list. Visa will eliminate the friction from payment, making it possible to transact securely and reliably in an AI-powered world.

Visa Intelligent Commerce is built on 30 years of experience working with AI and machine learning to manage risk and fraud and to deliver secure payment experiences. Alongside industry leaders such as Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, Stripe, and others, Visa will facilitate personalised and secure AI commerce on a global scale.

“We are working with companies at the forefront of AI innovation to drive engagement on AI platforms and support new ways to pay, with security and trust as our number one priority,” Forestell added. “Together with our partners, we are fully harnessing the potential of AI to transform every aspect of commerce, payments, and business.”

Empowering Consumers, Merchants, and Developers

The transformation of AI commerce – today a futuristic and relatively unknown concept – into a frictionless, secure, and personalised experience for both merchants and consumers is underway at Visa.

Visa Intelligent Commerce incorporates a set of integrated APIs and a merchant partner program into AI platforms, allowing developers to implement Visa’s AI commerce capabilities securely and at scale.

Visa Intelligent Commerce offers:

• AI-Enabled Cards. Replaces card data with tokenised digital credentials, which enhances security for consumers and simplifies payment processes for developers. In turn, it confirms that the agent chosen by the consumer is authorised to act on their behalf. This incorporates identity verification into AI commerce. Only the consumer can instruct the agent on what to do and when to activate a payment credential.
• AI-Powered Personalisation. The consumer is in control. It shares basic spending and shopping information from Visa with the consumer’s consent to improve the agent’s performance and personalise purchasing recommendations.
• Simple and Secure AI Payments. Allows consumers to easily set spending limits and conditions, providing clear guidelines for the agent’s transactions. Additionally, it shares real-time commerce signals with Visa, enabling Visa to monitor transactions and help manage disputes.

Visa’s payment technologies, including tokenisation and authentication APIs, will help enable transactions that are secure and frictionless, providing confidence to consumers who use AI to make purchases. Visa has decades of experience in fraud management, along with a robust data platform, and uses this expertise to power the Visa Intelligent Commerce program.

Find out more about Visa Intelligent Commerce visa.com/intelligentcommerce

And learn how Visa is working with banks like CIBC to build a secure future for AI commerce.