Digital checkout is about to get smarter, as Visa launches a major new initiative—Visa Intelligent Commerce—designed to integrate artificial intelligence into digital payments as part of its Global Product Drop, signaling a shift toward more autonomous and intuitive online shopping experiences.

The initiative enables AI agents to take a more active role in discovering, selecting, and purchasing goods and services on behalf of users. While Visa isn’t creating the AI agents, it has built the e-commerce infrastructure to support such transactions.

Until now, AI tools could help identify potential purchases, but completing the transaction still required human action. Visa’s system aims to eliminate that step by connecting AI-driven discovery with seamless payment execution.

To make this possible, AI agents must gain the trust of users, banks, and merchants when handling payments. Visa’s strategy is to open its payments network to developers, financial institutions, fintechs, and tech companies building AI-powered commerce platforms.

Visa Global Product Drop

“As new ways to pay emerge, they need to run on a network that is always on – that is safe, secure, scalable and relentlessly innovating,” said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney. “We are taking the power of our network and expertise to transform commerce and bring trust and security to AI-enabled payments.”

Visa Intelligent Commerce includes a suite of integrated APIs and a commercial partner program to help developers securely scale AI-powered commerce.

Key features include AI-Ready Cards, which use tokenized digital credentials to ensure secure transactions and confirm that an AI agent is authorized to act on a user’s behalf.

The platform also offers AI-Powered Personalization, allowing users to opt in and share purchase insights to improve shopping recommendations. In addition, it enables Simple and Secure AI Payments, letting consumers set spending limits and transaction conditions, with real-time commerce signals that support dispute resolution and transaction control.

Visa also announced new stablecoin partnerships and an expansion of its Flex Credential platform, which aims to support a broader range of global payment and payout options.

Flex Credential acts as a dynamic card that can switch between payment methods, including debit, credit, and buy now, pay later. Already used by millions worldwide, it will soon support additional use cases such as credit lines, investment accounts, rewards programs, and commercial cards.

Visa Global Product Drop

The initiative builds on over 30 years of Visa’s expertise in artificial intelligence, particularly in fraud prevention and risk management. By collaborating with industry leaders such as Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, and others, Visa aims to deliver personalized, secure AI-driven commerce globally.

“Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing it to help combat fraud. Now, we will also enable AI to empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant, and more delightful,” added McInerney.