The world’s top payment giants are betting big on AI. This week, Visa and Mastercard unveiled major initiatives that will let AI agents shop, make decisions, and complete purchases on your behalf; a major leap into what’s being called agentic commerce.
This is more than a tech upgrade. It’s a radical shift in how consumers will interact with the online marketplace. Instead of browsing or adding items to your cart, AI will soon handle everything from search to payment, based on your preferences.
Visa’s play
Revealed Wednesday at the Visa Global Product Drop, Visa’s new platform enables developers to build AI shopping agents that can search, compare, decide, and spend using Visa’s infrastructure.
“Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest,” said Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer.
The offering includes:
- AI-ready credit cards with tokenized digital credentials for security
- Personalized insights (with user consent) to improve agent performance
- Transaction tools that allow AI to complete purchases within user-defined rules
Photo by CardMapr.nl on Unsplash
Visa is working with a powerhouse list of partners: OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, IBM, Mistral AI, Perplexity, Stripe, and Samsung, among others.
Mastercard’s move
Just one day earlier, Mastercard launched Agent Pay, a tool that lets generative AI agents make purchases directly in the flow of conversation. Imagine chatting with an AI stylist that knows your size, style, and event and buys the perfect outfit for you.
“She can now chat with an AI agent to proactively curate a selection of outfits… and make the purchase,” Mastercard said, describing a 30th birthday planning scenario.
Mastercard is collaborating with Microsoft, IBM, Braintree, and Checkout.com to scale these agentic experiences across industries.
It’s Not Just Them:
- PayPal unveiled its own AI shopping agent this week.
- Amazon began testing “Buy for Me”, an AI-powered shopping tool.
- OpenAI and Google are also rolling out agents that can search, evaluate, and purchase products online.
New Reality
The age of scrolling and clicking is giving way to delegating. You’ll be able to tell your AI what you need and it will go get it, securely and efficiently. Want it cheap, sustainable, and delivered tomorrow? Your agent will handle it.
AI is becoming your new personal shopper. Visa and Mastercard just opened the door to a future where buying things is as easy as asking, and paying happens behind the scenes with AI doing the heavy lifting.
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