Visa Launches “Intelligent Commerce” to Enable AI Agents with Tokenized Payments and Personalized APIs

Visa introduced Intelligent Commerce at its Global Product Drop—an AI-focused platform that opens Visa’s payment rails to developers building agentic shopping experiences. Through integrated APIs, Visa offers AI-Ready Cards with tokenized credentials, AI-Powered Personalization via user-consented spend insights, and AI Payments with granular, user-defined transaction controls. Trusted by partnerships with OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, and others, this initiative aims to reduce checkout friction and support the projected 45% annual growth of AI agents in commerce.

Overview of Visa Intelligent Commerce

Visa Intelligent Commerce is a commercial partner program that provides AI platforms and developers with a suite of integrated APIs to securely embed Visa payments into agentic shopping workflows. It builds on 30+ years of Visa’s AI and machine-learning fraud management to ensure secure, seamless transactions in automated commerce.

AI-Ready Cards & Tokenization

• Tokenized Digital Credentials: Replaces static PANs with single-use tokens, isolating credentials from merchants and AI agents to mitigate data leakage.

• Agent Authorization: Consumers designate specific AI agents and spending scopes; Visa’s token service confirms that only authorized agents can request payments.

AI-Powered Personalization

• Consent-Driven Insights: With user permission, Visa shares anonymized spend patterns and purchase contexts—such as preferred brands or typical price ranges—to enhance AI agent recommendations and selection logic.

• Dynamic Personalization: AI agents leverage real-time preference signals (e.g., eco-friendly options) to tailor product searches and streamline decision-making.

AI Payments & Transaction Controls

• Spending Limits & Guidelines: Consumers set hard limits, merchant categories, and frequency rules; Visa enforces these controls at the network level in real time.

• Fraud & Dispute Management: Commerce signals flow instantly to Visa risk engines—leveraging Visa’s machine-learning models—to flag anomalies and reduce false declines.

Developer Ecosystem & Partner Program

• Integrated APIs: Including Payment Passkeys, Token Service, Personalization API, and AI Agent SDK, all accessible to VisaReady partners.

• Commercial Partner Roster: Collaboration spans incumbents and disruptors—OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Mistral AI, Perplexity, IBM, Samsung, Stripe, and more—enabling seamless API integration into leading AI platforms.

Strategic Partnerships

These alliances ensure broad platform support and accelerate innovation:

• OpenAI & Anthropic: Agentic assistants integrated directly with ChatGPT and Claude platforms.

• Microsoft & IBM: Enterprise AI tools gain direct payment capabilities within Azure OpenAI and Watson ecosystems.

• Stripe & Samsung: Mobile wallets and merchant SDKs facilitate diversified agentic commerce Journeys.

Business Implications & Value

• Frictionless Checkout: Automated agentic purchases reduce cart abandonment and boost conversion—key for e-commerce players facing a 70% average abandonment rate.

• New Revenue Streams: Banks and issuers can monetize AI-enabled cards and data services through tiered subscription or fee-per-transaction models.

• Competitive Differentiation: Early adopters in retail, travel, and grocery can offer concierge-style shopping, enhancing customer loyalty.

• Operational Efficiency: Retailers streamline order management via machine-to-machine transactions, reducing manual order entry costs by up to 30%.

Risks & Compliance Considerations

• Data Privacy: Robust consent frameworks and PCI-compliant tokenization mitigate consumer data exposure.

• Regulatory Oversight: Emerging guidelines around AI decision-making and delegated payments demand transparent audit trails; Visa’s APIs log agent actions for compliance.

• Agent Liability: Clear distinction of liability between AI agent providers, issuers, and merchants must be codified in service agreements.

Conclusion

Visa Intelligent Commerce heralds a new era of agentic shopping, combining secure tokenization, personalized AI insights, and network-level controls. For top executives, this translates into a blueprint for scalable, automated commerce that reduces friction, drives revenue, and maintains compliance. To capitalize, organizations should:

1. Pilot AI agent integrations with Visa APIs to measure impact on conversion and user satisfaction.

2. Co-develop with AI platform partners to optimize agent workflows for target segments.

3. Implement robust governance—defining spending policies, consent flows, and audit frameworks—to ensure secure, compliant deployments.

As the AI agent market scales at 45% CAGR through 2030, per BCG, Visa’s Intelligent Commerce positions enterprises to lead in frictionless, personalized, and secure digital commerce.