Visa Gives AI Shopping Agents ‘Intelligent Commerce’ Superpowers.pdf
- 1. Visa, a titan in global payments, has launched a groundbreaking initiative that could reshape how consumers interact with commerce by empowering AI agents with what the company calls “Intelligent Commerce” capabilities. As artificial intelligence matures into a platform-level utility, Visa is building the financial rails to support next-generation digital agents that can shop, transact, and manage payments autonomously. This initiative is more than just a tech upgrade — it’s a strategic overhaul aiming to redefine commerce infrastructure in an AI-first world.
- 2. From Plastic to Protocol: Visa’s Shift Toward AI-Powered Transactions Visa’s core business is evolving. No longer just a network for processing card transactions, Visa now positions itself as an “AI-native commerce network.” The company is enabling digital agents — powered by platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, and Samsung’s AI assistant — to act on behalf of users in real time. What Are Intelligent Commerce Agents? These agents, akin to personal assistants, can: ● Search for and compare products across retailers. ● Plan travel itineraries and make bookings. ● Handle recurring purchases like groceries or household supplies. ● Complete transactions autonomously based on budget constraints or user preferences.
- 3. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, stated: “We’re laying the foundation for commerce that’s intuitive, intelligent, and invisible.” By embedding Visa’s secure payments directly into these AI agents, the company ensures that the transaction experience is frictionless and fully integrated into the conversation flow. Visa’s CMO on AI Agents, Ad Tech, and the Future of Creativity In parallel with its product and technology overhaul, Visa is also reimagining how marketing operates in an AI-first world. Frank Cooper III, Visa’s Chief Marketing Officer, recently offered critical insight into how artificial intelligence is transforming both consumer engagement and creative development in financial services and beyond. Embracing AI as a Creative Co-Pilot Cooper emphasized that Visa views AI not just as a productivity tool, but as a creative collaborator. Generative AI is already helping Visa’s marketing teams:
- 4. ● Generate visual concepts and campaign mockups. ● Experiment with dynamic ad copy based on behavioral data. ● Run simulations of customer journey touchpoints across platforms. “AI is helping us unlock creativity at scale — not replace it,” Cooper told AdAge. “It allows our teams to go deeper, faster, and reach markets more intelligently.” For example, AI systems can now tailor 10,000 hyper-targeted ad variants for different micro-audiences in the time it previously took to develop a single traditional campaign. Real-Time Ad Tech and Personalized Messaging Visa is also integrating AI into its ad tech stack, enabling dynamic creative optimization (DCO) and real-time personalization. By leveraging data signals like location, spending behavior, and contextual interest, Visa can now deliver: ● Personalized card product offers based on recent purchase categories. ● Tailored merchant promotions tied to users’ AI agent purchasing history.
- 5. ● Intelligent retargeting based on agent-initiated shopping activity (with user consent). This approach marks a shift away from generic banner ads toward “intelligent messaging moments” that feel native to the platforms where users interact, especially voice assistants, messaging apps, and digital wallets. Marketing in the Age of AI Agents One of the biggest shifts Visa anticipates is marketing to AI agents themselves. “We’re not just thinking about marketing to people,” said Cooper. “We’re thinking about marketing to their agents.” Visa is developing early strategies around how brands can influence AI agents’ decisions. For instance: ● Providing agents with product metadata that optimizes discovery. ● Developing trust signals (e.g., sustainability, user reviews, brand guarantees) that influence agent-based rankings.
- 6. ● Optimizing loyalty programs that AI agents consider when making choices for users. This signals a major transition in marketing, where visibility isn’t determined solely by SEO or human behavior, but by how well your brand communicates with an intelligent intermediary. Human Creativity Still at the Core Despite the rise of generative tools, Cooper emphasized that human creativity and cultural intelligence remain irreplaceable. Visa’s AI-driven marketing is always anchored in human values, regional cultural fluency, and emotion, particularly as the brand operates in 200+ countries. “The tech is powerful, but empathy, storytelling, and emotional resonance still come from people,” Cooper said. AI Agents in Creativity, Media, and Marketing Visa’s marketing transformation reveals a future where creative professionals collaborate with AI, media buys are smarter, and campaigns are shaped not just for people, but for their digital representatives. This evolution parallels Visa’s broader goal: to make
- 7. every interaction — be it a transaction or a message — intelligent, contextual, and invisible. As AI agents continue to shape how we buy, communicate, and connect, Visa is ensuring its brand isn’t just present — but essential — at every step of the journey. AI Agent Infrastructure: Visa’s Partnership Playbook Visa has partnered with leading AI and tech firms, including: ● OpenAI: Integration with ChatGPT enables commerce capabilities within conversational interfaces. ● Microsoft: Using Azure’s cloud and AI services for scalable agent infrastructure. ● IBM & Anthropic: For enterprise-grade AI models and ethical deployment frameworks. ● Stripe & Perplexity: For seamless payment and information retrieval integrations. ● Samsung: Bringing AI agent shopping to mobile devices with wallet integration.
- 8. These collaborations not only extend Visa’s reach into consumer devices and enterprise applications but also position it as a payments backbone for the emerging AI agent economy. Combatting Friction and Fraud with Data Intelligence Smarter Fraud Detection Through Deep Learning Visa processes over 270 billion transactions annually, and fraud prevention is mission-critical. AI now helps detect anomalies in real time across geographies and payment types. ● Visa Protect: Blocks fraudulent activity using real-time behavioral data. ● Visa Deep Authorization: A deep learning system trained on transaction patterns, helping issuers approve legitimate payments even in high-risk contexts. ● In 2023, Visa helped prevent $40 billion in fraud, nearly double the figure from 2022. These tools ensure that intelligent agents can make purchases without exposing users to heightened risks, even as they remove humans from the approval loop.
- 9. User-Centric Design: Consent, Privacy, and Control Visa’s tokenization infrastructure will be key to allowing AI agents to transact on a user’s behalf without ever exposing sensitive financial data. Visa’s AI shopping systems are consent-based, meaning: ● Users explicitly permit their AI agent to access and use their payment method. ● Tokenized cards and biometric authentication (like face or fingerprint) confirm intent. ● Spending limits, merchant preferences, and other “guardrails” can be defined by the user. This privacy-forward design anticipates concerns around AI autonomy and seeks to ensure users retain agency. Retail Personalization: Giving Merchants Intelligent Insights In addition to supporting consumers, Visa is building tools for merchants that enable hyper-personalized shopping experiences: ● AI models analyze consumer preferences across billions of transactions.
- 10. ● Merchants get access to anonymized, tokenized data to tailor offers and recommendations. ● This real-time personalization increases conversion rates and customer loyalty. Example Use Case: A digital agent could prompt an apparel brand’s site to auto-adjust its home page for a returning customer who frequently buys sportswear, showing limited-time offers in the same category. Preparing for an AI-First Economy According to McKinsey, AI agents could influence up to $2 trillion in global digital commerce by 2030. Visa’s early move positions it to capture a significant share of that transformation by being the “financial engine” for these agents. Other players in the space include: ● Amazon: Testing voice assistants with shopping features. ● Apple: Integrating AI with Apple Pay for seamless Siri-based transactions. ● Google: Pushing AI agents into Android via Gemini.
- 11. But Visa stands apart in that it controls the payment rails, not just the interface or devices. This positions the company to act as the connective tissue between AI agents, consumers, and businesses. Future Outlook: Commerce Without Clicks Visa envisions a future where consumers won’t need to browse, compare, or even input their card manually. Instead: ● You’ll tell your AI assistant, “Order groceries for the week under $100.” ● The agent will negotiate prices, select products, and complete payment — all through Visa. ● The experience becomes invisible, automated, and optimized. Visa isn’t just upgrading commerce; it’s redefining it. As AI agents become more autonomous and capable, Visa aims to be the invisible engine powering their decisions.
- 12. Conclusion: Visa as the Core AI-Commerce Platform With its Intelligent Commerce initiative, Visa is not just responding to trends — it’s setting the pace. By combining trusted payments infrastructure, $3B in AI investments, and global partnerships, Visa is building the backbone for an AI-native economy. In doing so, it may become less of a credit card company and more of an intelligent layer between people, payments, and intelligent machines. Visa’s transformation underscores a broader shift: AI agents aren’t just tools but participants in the economy, and Visa is making sure they’re ready to shop.