Visa Empowers AI Agents to Make Purchases on Your Behalf

Visa has announced a groundbreaking initiative to enable artificial intelligence (AI) agents to make purchases on behalf of users by integrating them into its global payments network. This development aims to facilitate more autonomous AI assistants capable of managing routine shopping tasks, such as buying groceries or booking flights, based on user-defined budgets and preferences.

To achieve this, Visa is collaborating with leading AI developers, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, and Mistral, as well as technology firms like IBM, Stripe, and Samsung. By linking AI agents to its payment infrastructure, Visa addresses a core challenge in AI-driven commerce: enabling agents to complete transactions securely and legitimately.

Pilot projects are currently underway, with broader implementation expected next year. Visa emphasizes maintaining consumer control through spending limits and oversight, ensuring that users can trust AI agents to handle purchases responsibly. Additionally, AI developers are exploring the use of transaction histories, with user consent, to provide more personalized shopping recommendations.

This initiative could transform e-commerce by easing everyday shopping burdens for consumers and offering a competitive response to the dominance of Amazon and Google in digital retail.