AI is changing the way we shop and pay. Visa is launching global products that enable purchasing through AI. "Soon, people will allow AI agents to browse, choose, purchase, and manage on their behalf," says Gery Lasky, CEO of Visa Global in Israel. "These agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only in the eyes of users but also in the eyes of banks and merchants."
"Just like the shift from physical shopping to online shopping, and from online shopping to mobile shopping, Visa is setting a new standard for a new era of commerce," said Lasky. "Now, with Visa Intelligent Commerce, AI agents can find, buy, and purchase for consumers based on predefined preferences. Each consumer sets the boundaries, and Visa helps manage the rest."
In the last 25 years, the Visa network has processed 3.3 trillion transactions. Visa will expand the infrastructure, standards, and capabilities that exist today in physical and digital commerce to AI-based commerce. Soon, consumers will allow AI agents to use Visa credentials (currently 4.8 billion of them) at every commercial location that accepts them (currently over 150 million such locations) for any payment use case.
"Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, leveraging capabilities to help fight fraud. Now, we will use AI also to empower consumers, and fundamentally change digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant, and more enjoyable. For every AI-based commerce use case, payment is a critical factor for success. If there is no payment, there is no commerce. This is the expertise and trust that Visa brings."
Creating a trusted future for commerce with AI
Millions of people will soon rely on AI to find the perfect sweater, inquire about a new vacation spot, or fill their shopping list. Visa will enable a simple and quick customer experience without the need for the customer to be involved in the actual payment process, and will enable transactions to be carried out by the AI agent in a secure and trusted manner.
Visa Intelligent Commerce is based on 30 years of expertise in working with AI and machine learning for risk and fraud management, with the goal of enabling safe and secure payment experiences. Together with AI industry leaders including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, Stripe, and more, Visa will enable personal and secure global-scale commerce through AI.
"We are working with companies that are at the forefront of AI innovation with platforms that support new ways of secure and reliable payment as our number one priority," added Lasky. "Together with our partners, we fully embrace the potential of AI to transform all aspects of commerce, payments, and business."
In Visa Intelligent Commerce – AI platforms are already embedded, enabling developers to deploy Visa’s AI commerce capabilities in a secure and large-scale manner.
Visa Intelligent Commerce offers:
AI-native cards: The product replaces card details with tokens that enable digital authentication, which enhances security for consumers and simplifies payment processes for developers. The card also confirms that an agent selected by the consumer is authorized to act on their behalf. Only the consumer can instruct the agent what to do and when to activate payment authorization.
Personalization through AI: Shares basic insights about spending and purchases with consumer consent and improves the agent’s performance in personalizing shopping recommendations.
Simple and secure payments with AI: Allows consumers to easily set spending limits, provides clear guidelines to the agent regarding transactions, shares real-time commerce signals with Visa, and enables Visa to monitor transactions and help resolve disputes.
Visa's payment technologies, including tokenization and authentication APIs, will help ensure transactions are secure and seamless and provide confidence to consumers using AI for shopping and purchases. Visa has decades of experience in fraud management, along with a strong data platform, and uses this experience to enable the Visa Intelligent Commerce program.
New products, advancement, and capabilities
Stablecoins: For over half a decade, Visa has been facilitating crypto transactions and now further expands applications for stablecoin currency with cards, settlements, and programmable money – all based on stablecoin. Stripe is working with Visa on a new card product that allows fintech developers to offer Visa cards linked to stablecoin to their customers in several countries through a single API integration.
Expansion: Flex Credential: Last year, Visa reinvented the card with the introduction of Flex Credential, a next-generation card that can seamlessly switch between different payment methods (debit, credit, buy now pay later). Today, millions of people around the world use Flex Credential, and Visa plans to expand them to new use cases, starting with expanding access to lines of credit, investment accounts, rewards, commercial cards, and more.
In addition, it was revealed that Visa and Klarna are collaborating to bring the Flexible Credential to the U.S. and will be the first in Europe to offer use of debit-to-"buy now pay later," allowing consumers more flexibility in how they pay. More details will be announced later this year.Introducing more ways to pay and get paid: Visa announces more ways for consumers, merchants, and partners to pay and get paid worldwide.
Visa Pay is a new service designed to connect any digital wallet to any merchant that allows Visa payment, locally or internationally, in-store or online. Visa Pay is intended to launch a beta version in selected markets in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Visa Accept, a service designed to allow micro-small businesses a way to receive payment to their Visa debit card from any NFC-enabled smartphone in just a few taps, providing access to billions of credentials with just one card in the pocket. Visa Accept is intended for release to Visa beta partners in July, with the first activations in Latin America and Asia.