The Future of Commerce Is Here, and It’s AI Powered
AI commerce is no longer a future concept—it’s here. Powered by advancements in generative AI, a new era of hyper-personalized, automated shopping is taking shape. AI agents can now anticipate consumer needs, surface the best options, and manage purchase preferences in real time.
Take travel as an example. Instead of navigating multiple platforms, consumers can delegate the entire process to an AI agent – from booking flights and hotels to planning itineraries. This saves time and enhances the overall purchase experience, while delivering more relevant, personalized outcomes.
At Visa, we are enabling this next era of commerce, building on the foundations of in-store, e-commerce, and mobile shopping – and leveraging our network and expertise to ensure trust, security and reliability in every transaction.
Powering the Future of Intelligent Commerce
As AI agents evolve from recommending products to executing purchases, a fundamental question emerges: how can we optimize the payment experience? These agents must reflect a consumer’s intent, manage payments securely, and navigate complex scenarios like fraud or disputes.
At the recent Visa Global Product Drop, we introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce1, an initiative that will empower AI agents to deliver personalized and secure shopping experiences for consumers – at scale2. Visa Agent APIs will offer a suite of payments tools, including tokenization, authentication and transaction controls, to enable security and provide consumer control over agent purchases3.
To move the needle on AI commerce at the speed and scale required, we are collaborating with leading AI platforms and brands that consumers and merchants choose to work with every day, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung.
These companies are designing and developing the AI shopping agents and platforms, with Visa acting as the essential “plug” for secure and seamless payment capabilities.
Security as the Foundation of Scalable Al Commerce
The widespread adoption of this technology is contingent upon trust. Consumers require assurance that AI agents will be governed responsibly, operate securely, and consistently act in their best interests – and so, too, do banks and sellers.
Visa is innovating with tokenization to fortify the security of sensitive card data. Instead of sharing the actual card number with an AI agent, a unique, randomly generated token is issued. In the event of a token compromise, the consumer’s card information remains protected. Tokenization also addresses the complexities of “friendly fraud” scenarios, such as unintended purchases.
This protection is further enhanced through biometric authentication via Visa Payment Passkey, which binds a consumer’s identity to their device using fingerprint or facial recognition4. When paired with tokenization, this layered approach strengthens authorization, reduces fraud, and unjustified chargebacks – delivering greater security across the AI commerce experience.
Visa Intelligent Commerce aims to empower consumers with flexible AI integration, allowing them to either delegate purchasing decisions with customizable controls (such as price, search duration, specific seller or other dimensions that consumers find meaningful in their shopping experience) or retain full review power before finalizing transactions. This agnostic approach prioritizes consumer choice and supports their preferred level of involvement.
Our Digital-First Markets Are Positioned To Lead
The growing demand for seamless, secure payment experiences is fueling readiness for AI commerce in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). Today, 57% of total CEMEA payment volumes consist of digital payments – and over 86% of in-person transactions are contactless, with mobile devices accounting for more than half of that volume5. In parallel, the use of tokenized credentials continues to rise, supported by a threefold increase in merchant acceptance over the past three years. As of 2024, more than 11 million merchants in the region now accept digital payments6.
We’re excited to work with our partners to build on this strong foundation to usher in the new era of AI commerce. In addition to our global collaboration with the leading AI platforms, we are forging local partnerships with AI enablers to bring this future to life. Visa Intelligent Commerce is now live in sandbox, and we’re inviting our clients and partners to begin testing today, with planned rollout for 2026. As we enter this next chapter, our commitment remains clear: to make AI commerce intelligent, secure, trusted, and inclusive.
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1https://corporate.visa.com/en/products/intelligent-commerce.html
2https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/newsroom/product-drop-intelligent-commerce.html
3https://corporate.visa.com/en/products/intelligent-commerce.html
4https://corporate.visa.com/en/sites/visa-perspectives/company-news/visa-payment-passkey-service.html
5https://economymiddleeast.com/news/visas-godfrey-sullivan-talks-challenges-in-payments-industry-empowering-merchants-and-shaping-solutions/
6https://economymiddleeast.com/news/visas-godfrey-sullivan-talks-challenges-in-payments-industry-empowering-merchants-and-shaping-solutions/
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