Visa launches Intelligent Commerce Connect to power AI agents in autonomous shopping

Visa rolling out AI buying platform

Why it matters: Visa is racing to stay embedded in transactions as AI platforms take over checkout. Driving the news: Visa on Wednesday unveiled Intelligent Commerce Connect, a platform that lets AI agents make payments across multiple card networs -- not just Visa. * Merchants can make their product catalogs directly discoverable to agents, allowing purchases without traditional checkout flows. * The platform is currently in pilot and is expected to be generally available by June, Visa tells Axios. Between the lines: The move builds on Visa's earlier efforts to support "agentic commerce," including tools to help merchants distinguish legitimate AI agents from bots. * Visa is betting it can stay in the middle of the transaction as rivals like Mastercard push to shape how AI-driven commerce works. * The push comes as tech, retail and payments companies work to build common standards for AI shopping, including efforts led by Google and Shopify. What we're watching: Whether major merchants or platforms adopt the system beyond early pilots and if consumers will trust agents to complete purchases autonomously at scale.

How Can Visa's Intelligent Commerce Connect Power AI Agents?

Visa $V Inc. V is expanding its footprint in next-generation shopping with the launch of Intelligent Commerce Connect. This platform acts as a unified system, enabling businesses to connect directly with AI agents through a single integration on Visa's acceptance network. Instead of people browsing and clicking through websites, AI agents can interact with merchant systems, compare products and complete purchases automatically. Through a single integration on the Visa Acceptance Platform, Intelligent Commerce Connect enables secure payments, tokenization, spend controls and authentication. It combines Visa's Intelligent Commerce APIs, allowing AI agents to pay using both Visa and non-Visa cards. This flexibility gives businesses and developers more choice in how transactions are handled, making it easier to adopt AI-driven, agentic payment experiences. Visa is preparing for compatibility with emerging AI commerce protocols like Trusted Agent Protocol, Machine Payments Protocol, Agentic Commerce Protocol and Universal Commerce Protocol. Merchants can create AI-discoverable catalogs, making it easier for AI agents to understand and evaluate products. Overall, Visa is evolving beyond a traditional payment network into a behind-the-scenes infrastructure that powers commerce, even when humans are no longer directly involved in the buying process. These moves are expected to enhance Visa's Value-Added Services unit and provide diversification benefits. Mastercard has introduced Mastercard Agent Pay, a solution focused on enabling secure AI-driven transactions. The platform uses technologies like tokenization and biometric authentication to ensure that payments made by AI agents are trusted and authorized. MA's focus is on trust, authentication and interoperability rather than just front-end automation. American Express is investing in agentic commerce through its upcoming Agentic Commerce Experiences developer kit. This toolkit is designed to help developers integrate Amex payments into AI-driven platforms, allowing intelligent agents to discover services, make decisions and complete transactions on behalf of users. AXP is leveraging its data and network to build more seamless and personalized AI-powered commerce experiences. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, V trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, above the industry average of 16.12. V carries a Value Score of D. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Visa's fiscal 2026 earnings implies an 11.9% jump from the year-ago period. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Visa stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

Visa unveils platform for agent-driven shopping and checkout

Visa announced a new platform called Intelligent Commerce Connect, designed to facilitate AI-driven commerce by allowing AI agents to browse, select, and pay for goods on behalf of consumers. This platform provides a network, protocol, and token vault-agnostic "on-ramp" for agentic commerce. It enables secure payment initiation, tokenization, spend controls, and authentication through a single integration on the Visa Acceptance Platform. Intelligent Commerce Connect supports both Visa and non-Visa card payments and is compatible with major AI agent protocols, positioning Visa firmly in the growing market of AI-driven financial transactions. The system further ensures the discoverability of merchant catalogs within AI platforms and maintains PCI compliance, allowing for streamlined integration for businesses looking to adopt these technologies. Currently, Intelligent Commerce Connect is in the pilot phase with select partners, with a broader rollout scheduled for later in 2026. This initiative follows the earlier launch of Visa CLI in March, which facilitated same-day payments through AI agents. In conjunction with this launch, AI fintech firm Nevermined has integrated with Visa's Intelligent Commerce using Coinbase's x402 protocol, allowing AI agents to conduct autonomous transactions. Users can enroll their Visa cards and establish spending rules for AI agents. "x402 gives agents an open standard to request payment programmatically," said Erik Reppel, creator of the protocol. He added that this launch shows how secure card infrastructure can support real transactions between AI agents and merchants. The x402 protocol has processed $24 million in transactional volume over the past 30 days, underscoring its operational viability in the market.

Visa Launches Platform for Agentic AI Payments

Visa is rolling out a platform that helps merchants make their product inventories discoverable and purchasable by AI agents. Credit card giant Visa has ventured further into the agentic AI payments race, announcing a new platform on Wednesday to help businesses participate in AI-driven commerce. In a statement on Wednesday, Visa described Intelligent Commerce Connect as a network, protocol, and "token vault-agnostic 'on-ramp'" to agentic commerce for AI agent builders and merchants. The system serves as a universal platform for agentic AI payments, which means AI agents acting for consumers can browse, select and pay for goods. "Through a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, Intelligent Commerce Connect enables secure payment initiation, tokenization, spend controls, and authentication," the firm stated. Crypto networks such as Ethereum, Tron and Solana, as well as fintech firms, have been positioning themselves as a way for AI agents to make online payments on behalf of consumers. The company said that Intelligent Commerce Connect supports both Visa and non-Visa card payments and is compatible with major AI agent protocols. It also makes merchant catalogs discoverable within AI platforms, handles tokenization, spend controls, authentication, and PCI compliance and is accessible through one integration on the Visa Acceptance Platform. Related: Agentic AI commerce may spell the end of internet ads: a16z Crypto The system is currently in the pilot phase with select partners, and a broader rollout is planned for later in 2026. It was not the first foray into agentic AI payments for Visa, which announced an experimental product called "Visa CLI" in March, allowing AI agents to make same-day payments. In a related announcement, AI fintech firm Nevermined integrated with Visa's new Intelligent Commerce using Coinbase's x402 protocol, enabling AI agents to buy digital goods and services autonomously. Users can enroll their Visa card and set spending rules, while AI agents can transact independently within those guardrails, and merchants receive payments through their existing processor. "x402 gives agents an open standard to request payment programmatically, and this launch demonstrates how that can work alongside secure card infrastructure to enable real commercial transactions between AI agents and merchants," said Erik Reppel, the creator of the protocol.

Visa unveils tool to give firms on-ramp to agentic commerce

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community. The payments giant, which has enthusiastically tried to position itself at the centre of a potentially hugely profitable agentic commerce era, says that businesses - whether they are building agents, selling to them, or processing transactions - need a simple way to get started. It is promising to help firms do just this through Intelligent Commerce Connect, which acts as a network, protocol, and token vault-agnostic 'on-ramp' to agentic commerce for agent builders, merchants, and enablers. Currently being piloted by partners ahead of a wider roll out this year, Connect is the latest addition to the Visa Intelligent Commerce suite of APIs and supporting tools that helps enable secure transactions initiated by AI agents within Visa's network. Through a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, the tool enables secure payment initiation, tokenisation, spend controls, and authentication. It integrates both Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs, and other networks' APIs, allowing agents to pay with both Visa and non-Visa cards. "From small businesses to the world's biggest retailers, Visa powers how people pay every day, millions of times over," says Andrew Torre, president, value-added services, Visa. "Intelligent Commerce Connect brings that same, trusted payment acceptance infrastructure into the emerging world of AI-driven commerce, so businesses can let AI agents buy on behalf of consumers, securely and at scale."

Visa Launches Platform to Power AI-Driven Purchases Worldwide

Visa Introduces Intelligent Commerce Connect to Enable AI-Powered Shopping and Redefine the Future of Checkout! Visa is preparing for an AI-powered future. The company has introduced Intelligent Commerce Connect, a platform designed to help businesses accept payments from AI assistants. This move highlights how quickly shopping habits are transforming as AI agents have become a part of daily life. According to tech enthusiasts, this is a major shift in digital commerce. The traditional clicking through checkout pages is no longer valid. AI agents have filled the gaps. Consumers now rely on AI to compare prices, choose items, and pay automatically. Visa's strategy aims to make that process secure and simple for both businesses and customers.