Visa and Akamai team up to secure AI shopping as bot traffic surges 300% in agentic commerce
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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
[2]
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Visa and Akamai Technologies are collaborating to address security vulnerabilities in AI-led shopping transactions. The partnership integrates Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's cybersecurity protections to help merchants distinguish trusted AI agents from malicious bots. With AI-powered bot traffic surging 300% over the past year, the collaboration aims to create safer agent-based commerce experiences across Visa's 175 million merchant locations.
Visa and Akamai Address Critical Security Gap in AI Shopping
Visa and Akamai Technologies announced a strategic collaboration on Wednesday to tackle one of the most pressing challenges in agentic commerce: verifying whether AI-powered agents conducting transactions are legitimate or malicious actors
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. The partnership integrates Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol with Akamai's edge-based behavioral intelligence and cybersecurity protections, creating a comprehensive framework for online transaction security as autonomous AI agents increasingly handle purchases on behalf of consumers3
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Source: PYMNTS
The urgency of this collaboration becomes clear when examining recent data. According to Akamai's 2025 Digital Fraud and Abuse Report, AI-powered bot traffic has surged 300% over the past year, with the commerce industry alone seeing more than 25 billion AI bot requests in a two-month period
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. This explosive growth in bot traffic creates significant challenges for merchants who must now distinguish trusted AI agents from malicious bots attempting fraudulent transactions4
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Source: Benzinga
How the Trusted Agent Protocol Works
The integrated solution addresses what Patrick Sullivan, chief technology officer of security strategy at Akamai Technologies, calls "the dual-identity challenge that's crucial to AI commerce." The system proves both who the agent is and, critically, who it represents
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. Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol provides an agent authentication framework that passes information from user to agent, while Akamai's user recognition technology preserves that identity throughout the transaction process1
.The protocol ensures that payments reach merchants exactly as buyers requested, with Akamai providing end-to-end protection through its behavioral intelligence capabilities
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. Importantly, the entire system is designed for deployment with minimal infrastructure and user experience changes, enabling Visa's 175 million accepting merchant locations to transition to agentic commerce seamlessly1
.Visa's Broader Push into AI-Driven Commerce
This partnership builds on Visa's earlier initiatives in AI-led shopping transactions. In May, Visa launched Visa Intelligent Commerce, which provides payment support to developers creating agentic AI shopping experiences
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. The program opens Visa's network rails to developers building AI agents that search, recommend, and pay on behalf of consumers5
.Visa reported successful completion of hundreds of AI transactions during a pilot program that kicked off after the company's product event in April
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. Rubail Birwadker, Visa's head of growth products and partnerships, predicts significant adoption ahead: "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"2
. The company plans to launch pilot programs in Asia and Europe next year and is working with over 20 partners on AI agent tools2
.Real-World Implementation and Voice-Enabled Agentic Payment
Visa has already demonstrated practical applications of its technology. In a recent implementation with Aldar, a UAE-based real estate developer, Visa enabled voice-enabled agentic payment experiences
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. In the first transaction, 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 using an Emirates NBD Darna Visa Card5
. Within weeks, Visa cardholders in the United Arab Emirates will be able to use an AI agent to pay their real estate service charges, with additional capabilities rolling out in 20265
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Source: PYMNTS
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Competition Heats Up in the Fintech Industry
Visa isn't alone in this space. The fintech industry is experiencing intense competition as companies race to build tools that allow consumers to task AI agents with completing transactions. Mastercard announced in April it was testing a feature called Agent Pay that allows AI agents to shop online for customers
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. Amazon began testing a "Buy For Me" offering that same month, while PayPal and Perplexity have joined forces on agentic shopping tools2
. A December survey from Visa found that nearly half of U.S. shoppers are using AI with purchases2
.What This Means for Merchants and Consumers
For merchants, the collaboration provides essential fraud controls and identity verification capabilities needed to engage AI agents in digital transactions safely
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. Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product & Strategy Officer, emphasized the practical benefits: "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"4
.For consumers, the implications extend beyond convenience. As AI shopping becomes mainstream, the ability to trust that autonomous AI agents are acting on legitimate instructions becomes critical. The partnership aims to transform AI agents from novelties into trusted economic actors capable of handling routine financial tasks securely
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. With billions of agentic AI requests flooding the internet, robust authentication and bot protection mechanisms are no longer optional but essential infrastructure for the next era of commerce.References
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