Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving beyond the confines of tech startups and entering mainstream finance, as Visa and Mastercard have now introduced significant AI-driven shopping capabilities.
Visa unveiled its new service, “Intelligent Commerce,” designed to empower AI agents that will independently shop and complete purchases for consumers, guided strictly by user-defined preferences. Visa Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell underscored the central role consumer control continues to play, stating, “Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest.”
To realize this vision, Visa is partnering with various technology powerhouses and innovative startups, such as Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, and Stripe. The goal of these collaborations is to craft shopping experiences that are at once personalized, secure, and highly convenient.
Mastercard, too, is moving aggressively into AI-powered commerce. Earlier this week, it announced a similar feature, brandishing it as “Agent Pay,” an initiative to seamlessly integrate payments with conversations facilitated by generative AI. Mastercard described vivid scenarios where AI-driven interactions would streamline customer experiences. For instance, a consumer planning her 30th birthday celebration could rely on an integrated AI tool: it would proactively suggest attire and accessories tailored precisely to her style preferences, occasion type, and even local weather conditions. Agent Pay then handles the purchasing process, recommending optimal payment options via Mastercard’s proprietary systems.
Mastercard will work hand-in-hand with Microsoft to further expand these agentic commerce scenarios. The network is also collaborating with firms like IBM, Braintree, and Checkout.com, focusing on refining AI-powered purchasing and payment integrations.
Both payment giants are joining a rapidly developing field, already seeing activity from other leaders such as Amazon, which recently began testing its own consumer-focused AI shopping agent, termed “Buy for Me.” Tech companies including Google, Perplexity, and OpenAI have also showcased versions of AI agents capable of autonomously handling online purchases. OpenAI, for instance, just upgraded its ChatGPT search capabilities to provide users with enhanced online purchasing experiences.
The announcements from Visa and Mastercard underscore how seriously the global financial services industry is taking the potential of generative artificial intelligence, heralding a new era in how consumers shop and transact online.
