Visa Inc (NYSE: V) is introducing agentic artificial intelligence into its regular services, which uses algorithms to help customers make smarter, easier purchases.
The credit card company announced Wednesday it will partner with top AI chatbot developers—Anthropic, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), OpenAI, Perplexity, and France’s Mistral—to link their systems to its payments network. Visa is also collaborating with IBM, Stripe, and Samsung on the initiative.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can independently plan, make decisions, and take actions to achieve goals with minimal human input.
Unlike chatbots, which typically respond to prompts in a reactive, turn-by-turn manner, agentic AI operates proactively. It can break down tasks, prioritize actions, and iterate toward objectives without constant supervision. These systems combine reasoning, memory, and autonomy to execute multi-step operations. This includes things like booking a trip or managing workflows—rather than simply answering questions or holding conversations.
“We think this could be really important,” said Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, in an interview. “Transformational, on the order of magnitude of the advent of e-commerce itself.”
The San Francisco payment processing company is betting that today’s futuristic tech could soon streamline everyday shopping tasks. Over the past six months, it has worked with AI developers to tackle technical challenges that must be solved before consumers adopt the technology.
For emerging AI companies, Visa’s support may strengthen their position in a market dominated by Amazon and Google. These tech giants are already building their own AI agents. As a result, Visa’s involvement could help level the playing field.
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These models scour the net looking for items to buy
The tech industry is already showcasing the potential of what it calls agentic AI, though real-world examples remain rare. Most current systems still rely on repurposed large language models—the generative AI behind chatbots that write emails, summarize documents, or assist with coding.
Trained on vast datasets, these models can search the internet and suggest items to buy. However, they struggle to take meaningful action beyond offering recommendations. Subsequently, their practical use remains limited—for now.
“The early incarnations of agent-based commerce are starting to do a really good job on the shopping and discovery dimension of the problem, but they are having tremendous trouble on payments,” Forestell said.
Visa sees itself as playing a central role in giving AI agents secure and trusted access to the funds needed for purchases. Forestell emphasized that AI platforms cannot solve the payments challenge alone, which is why Visa began collaborating with them.
The new AI initiative follows major updates Visa announced nearly a year ago that aim to make physical cards and 16-digit numbers less relevant in the U.S. Many consumers already use digital payment tools like Apple Pay, which turn smartphones into virtual credit cards.
Similarly, Visa would vet a person’s digital identity to authorize AI agents to act on their behalf. Forestell noted this process must reassure consumers, banks, and merchants that transactions are valid and Visa will manage any disputes.
The pilot projects begin Wednesday with a broader rollout scheduled for next year.
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