Visa CEO Says AI Shopping Is Here, but Agentic Payments Lag

Generative AI is evolving from answering questions to shopping, subscribing to services and initiating transactions on users’ behalf. That shift exposes a gap in payment infrastructure built around human cardholders and conventional merchant checkouts. Visa and Mastercard are developing dedicated rails for AI agents, while stablecoin and cryptocurrency protocols are targeting micropayments, machine-to-machine settlement and the identity and authorization controls autonomous commerce requires.

The latest reported tally as of Aug. 6, 2026, put AI-agent payment volume at only about $136 million, underscoring how early the market remains. Visa and Mastercard are competing to control the gateway for automated transactions, while onchain providers are pitching programmable, low-cost stablecoin payments for small purchases. Both camps are seeking to solve a central constraint: enabling an AI agent to prove its identity and spending authority before money moves.

Visa and Artemis examined the rise of machine-native payments as artificial-intelligence agents evolve from advisory tools into entities capable of placing orders and purchasing services autonomously. Protocols including x402 and MPP are emerging to handle the high-frequency, low-value transactions generated by those agents, challenging banks and card networks to rethink payment infrastructure, identity controls, risk management and regulatory compliance.

The research found that AI-agent activity across x402 and MPP generated more than 110 million transactions during the 12 months covered by the report. The volume underscores the rapid expansion of micropayments as autonomous software becomes an active participant in commerce. Visa said established payment providers risk disintermediation unless they develop systems that can process agent-led transactions instantly and cheaply while preserving verification, consumer safeguards and compliance oversight.

Agentic commerce allows software to search for, select and purchase products with a user’s authorization, making identity verification, payment authorization and risk controls critical. Visa launched Visa Intelligent Commerce on April 30, 2025, to provide payment APIs to AI platforms. Connect further integrates the connection process, lowering adoption barriers for merchants, agent developers and payment service providers.

Visa unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect on April 8, 2026. Through a single integration with the Visa Acceptance Platform, businesses can initiate payments, tokenize credentials, set spending controls and perform authentication, with support for APIs from Visa and other card networks. Seven companies, including AWS, Mesh and Payabli, are piloting the service, with a broader rollout planned during 2026. Visa did not disclose pricing or an investment amount.

Banks and merchants have long used passwords, one-time passcodes, selfies and voice biometrics to verify who is making a payment. Generative AI can now produce deepfakes, synthetic identities and voice clones at scale, weakening one-time login checks. Visa says that as AI agents begin shopping and paying on customers’ behalf, payment networks must determine both the scope of their authorization and whether their behavior is genuine, without compromising security or a smooth checkout experience.

PYMNTS published an interview with Visa executive James Mirfin on March 19, 2026. He said companies are continuously analyzing transaction patterns, device information and location data, while using tokenization and trusted-agent protocols to define authorization. The report did not disclose the value of fraud losses. Gartner estimates that by 2031, 50% of large financial institutions will consolidate responsibility for fraud prevention, identity and cybersecurity.

Agentic commerce allows AI agents, with consumers’ authorization, to search for products, place orders and make payments. Visa and Banco Santander integrated Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC) with existing payment infrastructure to test consent capture, data security and interoperability across merchants and payment networks. A Visa survey found that more than 70% of Latin American consumers already use AI during the shopping process, making transaction controls and consumer protection critical to scaling the technology.

Visa and Banco Santander announced on March 12, 2026, that they had completed Latin America’s first end-to-end AI agent payment pilots across five markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. An AI agent bought chocolate in Brazil and books in the other four countries, completing the payments within existing regulatory and authorization parameters. The companies did not disclose transaction values or the number of participants.

Visa said consumers in Asia Pacific are increasingly comfortable using AI to search for products, compare options and support purchasing decisions, positioning the region to move first toward “intelligent commerce.” The next phase will focus on building trust among users, merchants and financial institutions so AI can complete payments autonomously under appropriate authorization and security controls.

Visa’s Asia Pacific president, Stephen Karpin, recently said the region would lead the global shift to “Agentic Payments.” Visa is using payment technology and security mechanisms to narrow the gap between AI-generated shopping recommendations and completed transactions. No specific investment amount or formal launch date was disclosed.