Visa on Thursday announced the evolution of AI-powered commerce after
processing "hundreds of secure agent-initiated transactions" through its platform in collaboration with partners.
“This holiday season marks the end of an era," said Rubail
Birwadker, senior vice president and head of growth products & partnerships at Visa.
In 2026, AI agents will not not just assist consumers with shopping, but will also complete purchases,
he said.
The shift signals a milestone, marking 2025 as the year consumers shopped and made purchases through AI agent-driven payment systems.
The rise of AI-powered commerce changes everything for
advertisers. It presents a significant shift that moves brands' focus from capturing human attention to optimizing for machine-readable information and AI recommendations -- with many
implications.
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Will it mean the end of impulse buying and the effectiveness of emotional advertising, specifically for high-cost items?
AI agents are rational
decision-makers that prioritize logic, price, reliability, and specific product specifications.
Optimizing for algorithms rather than for humans and search engines or social
media feeds has become another consideration for brands.
Budgets may shift from traditional display ads and some content marketing toward integrating directly into AI
recommendation systems or paying for preferred placements.
Agentic commerce is
driving this evolution as consumers increasingly delegate product discovery and purchasing decisions to autonomous AI agents.
This shift represents a change in technology and a complete
reimagining of how consumers shop.
New Visa research estimates that 47% of U.S. shoppers now use AI tools for at least one shopping task, such as price comparisons or personalized
recommendations.
With AI-generated traffic increasing, Visa predicts that millions of consumers will use AI agents to complete purchases by the 2026 holiday season.
Visa is
working with more than 100 partners to build a commerce ecosystem. More than 30 partners use Visa Intelligent Commerce sandbox, a testing environment for agentic commerce.
More than 20 agents
and agent enablers are integrating directly with Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC).
Visa announced today that 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 VIC pilots from agent-enabling partners including Skyfire, Nekuda, PayOS and Ramp are
already executing end-to-end consumer and B2B purchases in closed beta.
Visa also is working with Akamai to thwart malicious bots and malware.
In October 2025, Visa and more
than 10 partners introduced Trusted Agent Protocol, an open framework designed on an existing web infrastructure that enables safe, agent-driven checkout by helping merchants distinguish between
malicious bots and legitimate AI agents acting on behalf of consumers.
Akamai has integrated its edge-based behavioral intelligence, user recognition, and bot and abuse protection with Visa.
The two companies now deliver identity, authentication, and fraud controls that are required to enable merchants to confidently bring AI agents with commerce intent into their digital storefronts.