Artificial intelligence “agents” are being designed to go beyond basic chatbots. These AI-powered personal assistants aim to understand user preferences and complete real tasks. So far, their impact has been limited — but Visa wants to change that.
The payment giant has announced partnerships with leading AI developers, including OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, and Mistral, to connect AI agents to its payment network. Other collaborators include IBM, Stripe, and Samsung. The goal is to enable AI agents to make purchases on behalf of users, such as buying groceries, booking travel, or ordering clothes, all within a set budget and user-defined limits.
Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, calls this a potentially “transformational” shift — one comparable to the early days of e-commerce.
Currently, most AI agents can assist with research and discovery, but struggle to complete purchases. Visa aims to solve this payment gap by allowing agents secure and trusted access to a user’s credit card. The company has spent months working with AI firms to overcome technical challenges, especially around transaction security and fraud prevention.
This new AI-driven commerce model will let users delegate routine or complex shopping tasks to AI, freeing up time for more meaningful decisions. Visa envisions that, over time, users will give their AI agents more autonomy — for example, allowing them to spend up to a certain amount without needing approval.
With user consent, these agents could also analyze past spending habits to provide smarter product recommendations. Perplexity, one of the partner companies, highlighted how access to transaction data could help tailor suggestions like, “What are the best laptops?” based on a user’s purchase history.
The pilot projects are launching now, with broader rollouts expected next year.