Visa and Akamai team up to secure AI shopping as bot traffic surges 300% in agentic commerce

Can your shopping bot be trusted? How Visa will ensure scam-free AI transactions

Visa and Akami aim to secure agentic transactions. It's another layer of protection for AI-led shopping.AI shopping experiences create new security risks. If you've been holiday shopping online, you may have noticed that this year, you have the option to use AI like a shopping assistant. This is just one step toward the ultimate goal of autonomous, agentic AI transactions -- which, while convenient, open up a whole new set of vulnerabilities. Also: Should you trust AI agents with your holiday shopping? Here's what experts want you to know Visa and cybersecurity company Akamai Technologies are collaborating to address a significant pain point in agentic commerce: verifying whether the bot conducting the transaction was sent by a human or is a malicious actor. The partnership, announced Wednesday, utilizes Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol in conjunction with Akamai Technologies' cybersecurity protections to create safer agent-based commerce experiences with better fraud controls. "By combining Visa Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's deep user recognition and threat intelligence, we're working to solve the dual-identity challenge that's crucial to AI commerce," said Patrick Sullivan, chief technology officer of security strategy at Akamai Technologies. "We prove both who the agent is and, critically, who it represents. This is what transforms AI agents from novelties into trusted economic actors." Many credit card companies have begun laying the groundwork for agent-based transactions by implementing new protocols, frameworks, and measures designed to improve security for individual users and enterprises. In May, Visa launched Intelligent Commerce, which provides payment support to developers creating agentic AI shopping experiences. It also offers AI-ready credit cards that replace card details with tokenized digital credentials, as well as AI payments, which enable AI agents to make transactions using guidelines set by the user. Google's Agent Payments Protocol, launched in September, aims to create similar protections for those wary of AI-enabled transactions. Also: How to shop with AI: 6 ways I find deals, price track, and let agents buy for me As the announcement explains, merchants must now decipher whether a bot is trying to place a transaction that actually belongs to a human. This is especially important as Akamai's 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report found that AI-powered bot traffic has surged 300% over the past year. To solve for this, Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol's agent authentication framework and Akamai's edge-based behavioral intelligence and user recognition will work in conjunction and verify the legitimacy of the agent activity. They will also work in concert to link the agent to each user, with the Trusted Agent Protocol passing information from user to agent, and then Akamai will preserve that identity. Also: The coming AI agent crisis: Why Okta's new security standard is a must-have for your business Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the Trusted Agent Protocol can ensure that the payment reaches the merchant in the way the buyer has requested, while Akamai can provide end-to-end protection. The entire Trusted Agent Protocol is meant to be deployed with "minimal infrastructure and user experience (UX) changes," enabling its 175 million Visa accepting merchant locations to make the transition over to agentic commerce as seamlessly as possible, according to Visa.

Visa says new AI shopping tool has helped customers with hundreds of transactions

Visa said on Thursday that it successfully completed hundreds of AI transactions as part of a pilot program that kicked off after the company's product event in April. The credit card issuer and rivals across the fintech industry are racing to build tools that allow consumers to task artificial intelligence agents with completing certain transactions. "This is going to be the year we see an enormous amount of material adoption, and consumers really starting to get comfortable in a bunch of different agentic environments," said Rubail Birwadker, Visa's head of growth products and partnerships, in an interview. AI is transforming the e-commerce experience for shoppers, changing how customers purchase and browse for goods. Mastercard said in April it was testing a feature called Agent Pay that allows AI agents to shop online for customers. Amazon began testing a "Buy For Me" offering that same month, while PayPal and Perplexity have joined forces on agentic shopping tools. Earlier in December, a survey from Visa found that nearly half of U.S. shoppers are using AI with purchases. While the data is limited, Birwadker said the tools could be useful for consistent purchases made by consumers or events like concert tickets. Visa said it plans to launch pilot programs in Asia and Europe next year, and is working with over 20 partners on AI agent tools.

AI is starting to shop for you. Here's how Visa is making sure it doesn't scam you

As autonomous AI agents increasingly browse, compare prices, and complete purchases on behalf of consumers, one challenge is becoming unavoidable for merchants: trust. On Wednesday, Akamai Technologies announced a strategic collaboration with Visa aimed at addressing that problem. The partnership integrates Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's behavioral intelligence, allowing merchants to authenticate AI agents, link them to real consumers, and block malicious bot traffic before it ever reaches sensitive systems. The move comes as agent-driven traffic floods the internet. According to Akamai's 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic surged more than 300% over the past year, with the commerce industry alone seeing more than 25 billion AI bot requests in a two-month period. "We all continue to be excited about the proliferation of agentic AI use cases," said Patrick Sullivan, CTO of security strategy at Akamai. "We're seeing billions upon billions of requests coming from agentic AI use cases."

Akamai, Visa Join Forces To Tame Rogue AI Shoppers - Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM), Visa (NYSE:V)

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) partnered with Visa Inc.(NYSE:V) to enhance identity verification, user recognition, and security for agentic commerce. The companies will integrate Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's edge-based behavioral intelligence and bot protection. It will provide merchants with the authentication and fraud controls needed to engage AI agents in digital transactions safely. Also Read: Visa Takes Another Major Step In Stablecoin Payments Strategy Enabling Trusted AI Transactions This integrated solution allows merchants to distinguish trusted AI agents from malicious bots, unlocking the potential of agentic commerce. Jack Forestell, Visa Chief Product & Strategy Officer, said, "By collaborating with Akamai to deploy Trusted Agent Protocol, we're delivering the real-time intelligence merchants need to support AI-driven experiences without introducing new risk. This is how we help the industry move confidently into the next era of commerce." Analyst Commentary Recently, KeyBanc analyst Jackson Ader upgraded Akamai's rating and said he expects continued CIS expansion, supported by the recently announced AI Inference Cloud platform, to be a tailwind for Akamai shares in 2026. The analyst also projects Akamai to accelerate revenue growth next year, driven by improved CDN pricing and rising cloud computing demand. AKAM Price Action: Akamai Technologies shares were up 0.28% at $87.99 during premarket trading on Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data. Read Next: Anemic Wage Growth But Good Retail Sales; Oil And Defense Stocks Fall Photo by Deemerwha studio via Shutterstock AKAMAkamai Technologies Inc$87.990.28%OverviewVVisa Inc$345.210.03%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Visa and Aldar Launch Voice-Enabled Agentic Payments | PYMNTS.com

In the first transaction involving the voice-enabled agentic payment experience, a customer made a payment on the Live Aldar mobile app through an AI agent that confirmed the customer's details and completed the transaction on their behalf, according to the release. The transaction was completed using an Emirates NBD Darna Visa Card linked to Aldar's digital loyalty platform, Darna, the release said. Within weeks, Visa cardholders in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be able to use an AI agent on Live Aldar or the Aldar website to pay their real estate service charges, per the release. The companies will roll out additional capabilities in 2026. "By pairing Aldar's AI agent with Visa Intelligent Commerce, we have transformed a routine payment into a customer-first experience that is secure, transparent and almost instant," Aldar Chief Digital Officer Harry Nakichbandi said in the release. "As we extend these AI-powered capabilities across Live Aldar, customers will see more value built in, from personalized offers and relevant services to Darna points and benefits that are applied automatically." Godfrey Sullivan, senior vice president, head of products and solutions, CEMEA, Visa, said in the release: "This implementation with Aldar demonstrates how Visa Intelligent Commerce can support trusted, secure agent-initiated transactions on the Visa cardholder's behalf, including handling routine financial tasks." The Visa Intelligent Commerce program, which was unveiled in April, opens the Visa network's rails to developers building AI agents that search, recommend and pay on behalf of consumers. "This is going to transform shopping and buying -- we're letting AI developers and engineers use the Visa network to allow AI agents to find, and buy, on [the consumer's] behalf in a seamless and safe way," Mark Nelsen, global head of consumer products at Visa, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted April 30.

Visa Says Millions of Consumers Will Use Agentic Commerce by Late 2026 | PYMNTS.com

By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions. The company said this Thursday (Dec. 18) while announcing that it and several partners have successfully completed hundreds of agent-initiated transactions. "This holiday season marks the end of an era," Rubail Birwadker, senior vice president, head of growth products and partnerships at Visa, said in a Thursday press release. "In 2026, AI agents won't just assist your shopping -- they will complete your purchases, powered by Visa's global scale, standards leadership and unparalleled commitment to secure agentic commerce." This progress toward agentic commerce builds on the Visa Intelligence Commerce (VIC) initiative launched earlier this year, as well as Visa's work with more than 100 partners around the world, according to the release. More than 30 partners are building within the VIC sandbox, more than 20 agents and agent enablers are integrating directly with VIC, and hundreds of controlled, real-world agent-initiated consumer and B2B transactions have been completed, the release said. Visa unveiled Visa Intelligent Commerce in April, saying the program opens the network's rails to developers building AI agents that search, recommend and pay on behalf of consumers. "This is going to transform shopping and buying -- we're letting AI developers and engineers use the Visa network to allow AI agents to find, and buy, on [the consumer's] behalf in a seamless and safe way," Mark Nelsen, global head of consumers products at Visa, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted in April. In October, Visa introduced the Trusted Agent Protocol, a tool created in partnership with Worldpay and Cloudflare and designed to allow secure communication between merchants and AI agents. "For the past year, we've worked closely with sellers, issuers and partners to make sure agent-initiated transactions are as seamless and secure as any payment today," Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer at Visa, said at the time in a press release. "Our new agent protocol is focused on creating no-code functionality for merchants to securely identify agents with an intent to buy and provide a better payment and personalized experience for its known users."

Visa and Partners Complete Secure Ai Transactions, Setting the Stage for Mainstream Adoption in 2026

Visa Inc. announced a major milestone in the evolution of AI-powered commerce: hundreds of secure, agent-initiated transactions have now been successfully completed in collaboration with partners across the ecosystem. This breakthrough signals that 2025 will be the final year consumers shop and checkout alone, as AI agent-driven payments rapidly transition from experimentation to mainstream adoption. This acceleration builds on Visa?s launch earlier this year of Visa Intelligent Commerce, a global initiative grounded in three decades of Visa?s AI leadership in secure payments. Visa remains on track to deliver secure, personalized AI-enabled commerce to consumers by early 2026. Real-world agentic commerce is already happening Visa is working with more than 100 partners around the world across the commerce ecosystem; over 30 partners are actively building within the VIC sandbox, and over 20 agents and agent enablers are integrating directly with Visa Intelligent Commerce. These collaborations have already produced hundreds of controlled, real-world agent-initiated transactions?proving the viability of AI-driven purchasing in live production environments. In the United States, early Visa Intelligent Commerce pilots from agent-enabling partners including Skyfire, Nekuda, PayOS and Ramp are already executing end-to-end consumer and B2B purchases in closed beta: Skyfireis enabling Consumer Reports? product recommendation agent to demonstrate a purchase of Bose headphones via browser automation. Nekuda is allowing fashion lovers on Gensmo?s app to move from AI-styled looks to purchase from Fabrique in a single tap via Rye?s checkout API, and is enabling Henry Labs to integrate a one-click checkout into Price.com and complete purchases at Honeylove via browser automation. PayOS is providing BeyondStyle with the payment infrastructure to enable agent-driven checkout with online retailer Jomashop. Ramp is applying Visa Intelligent Commerce to its automation platform for B2B payments, streamlining corporate bill pay operations while allowing its customers to capture cashback on card payments. No one organization can build this alone, and Visa is empowering an entirely new ecosystem of AI companies to deliver secure agentic purchasing at a global scale. Visa has also recently expanded its Intelligent Commerce framework to accelerate adoption of agentic commerce in more markets around the globe. In Asia Pacific and Europe, pilot programs are anticipated to kick off in early 2026, while in Latin America and the Caribbean, Visa is ensuring readiness for consumers to make AI-driven purchases at top merchants in the region over the next year. In the Middle East, Visa is working with Aldar to allow customers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to use AI agents to easily pay repetitive fees like real estate service charges. Visa is building the backbone for secure, intelligent transactions, ensuring every agent interaction is trusted and secure. For agentic commerce to reach its full potential, an ecosystem-led approach is paramount. In October 2025, Visa and more than 10 partners introduced Trusted Agent Protocol, an open framework designed on existing web infrastructure that enables safe agent-driven checkout by helping merchants to distinguish between malicious bots and legitimate AI agents acting on behalf of consumers.

Akamai and Visa Collaborate to Build Trust in Agentic Commerce

Akamai Technologies, Inc. announced a strategic collaboration with Visa to bring stronger identity, user recognition, and security controls to the emerging world of agentic commerce. Through its integration of Visa?s Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai?s edge-based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot and abuse protection, the companies will deliver the identity, authentication, and fraud controls required to let merchants confidently welcome AI agents with commerce intent into their digital storefronts. Through the Trusted Agent Protocol?s agent authentication framework and Akamai?s edge-based behavioral intelligence and user recognition, merchants gain access to precise, real-time insight into AI agent activity before it touches sensitive systems. This unified approach enables merchants to confidently differentiate trusted AI agents from malicious bots ? unlocking the potential of agentic commerce. With Trusted Agent Protocol supported across Akamai Cloud, the world?s most distributed cloud platform, merchants can operate at the speed and scale agentic commerce demands. Trusted Agent Protocol addresses this need directly by helping to ensure that every AI agent paying with a Visa credential is trusted, authenticated, and operating as intended. Using industry standard web infrastructure, Trusted Agent Protocol allows agents to transmit information to merchants to show that the agent is approved for its specific shopping mission, provide visibility into the consumer making the transaction, and securely pass payment information through a merchant?s preferred checkout flow. Trusted Agent Protocol is designed to scale with minimal infrastructure and user experience changes, making it easy for 175 million Visa accepting merchant locations around the globe to adopt agentic commerce ? without compromising security, control, or trust.