Global payment giant Visa has unveiled an ambitious vision for the future, where AI agents will independently find, select and pay for goods and services on behalf of consumers using Visa's trusted network.

The key announcement was the Visa Intelligent Commerce initiative. This platform will give AI service developers and technology companies access to Visa's payment infrastructure. The goal is to create a foundation for secure and seamless payments made by autonomous AI agents. Consumers will be able to delegate tasks ranging from routine grocery orders to complex ticket or table reservations to their digital assistants, and AI will use their Visa card data (of which there are already 4.8 billion worldwide) to pay at any of 150 million acceptance points.

‘Historically, Visa has used artificial intelligence to protect consumers from fraud. Now we will enable AI to expand consumer capabilities, fundamentally transforming digital commerce and making it more personalised and engaging,’ said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney.

To realise this vision, Visa has already secured the support of leading players in the field of AI, announcing collaborations with Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung. These partnerships are designed to accelerate the development and adoption of AI solutions in commerce.

‘AI agents have tremendous potential, from optimising routine purchases to solving complex search and decision-making tasks,’ added Jack Forrestell, Visa's chief product and strategy officer.

This is a revolution that will bring more magic and convenience to the consumer experience.