AI-powered credit cards: Visa to allow chatbots to make purchases
02 May 2025
Image: Shutterstock
Visa is introducing a new artificial intelligence service which enables chatbots to shop and buy products on behalf of customers.
Introduced on 30 April at the Visa Global Product Drop, Visa Intelligent Commerce enables AI to find and buy. It is a new initiative that opens Visa’s payment network to the developers and engineers building the foundational AI agents transforming commerce.
“Soon people will have AI agents browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf,” said Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell. “These agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only by users, but by banks and sellers as well.”
“Just like the shift from physical shopping to online, and from online to mobile, Visa is setting a new standard for a new era of commerce,” said Forestell.
“Now, with Visa Intelligent Commerce, AI agents can find, shop and buy for consumers based on their pre-selected preferences. Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest.”
Creating a “trusted” future for AI commerce
Millions of people will soon rely on AI to find the perfect jumper, research a new holiday spot, or fulfil their grocery list. Visa will remove friction from the payment itself, making it possible to transact in an AI-driven world in a way that is, the company claims, “secure and trusted”.
Visa Intelligent Commerce builds off more than 30 years of expertise working with AI and machine learning to manage risk and fraud to enable safe and secure payment experiences.
Together with AI industry leaders, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, Stripe and more, Visa says it will enable personalised, secure AI commerce on a global scale.
“We’re working with companies at the forefront of AI innovation to encourage AI platform participation and support new ways to pay with security and trust as our number one priority,” added Forestell.
“Together with our partners, we fully embrace AI’s potential to transform all aspects of commerce, payments and business.”
Empowering consumers, merchants and developers
Visa’s plan is to help transform AI commerce, today a futuristic, relatively unknown concept, into a seamless, secure and personalised experience for merchants and consumers alike.
Visa Intelligent Commerce brings a suite of integrated APIs and a commercial partner program to AI platforms, enabling developers to deploy Visa’s AI commerce capabilities securely and at scale.
Visa Intelligent Commerce promises:
• AI-ready cards: Replaces card details with tokenised digital credentials, enhancing security for consumers and simplifying payment processes for developers. They confirm that a consumer’s chosen agent is allowed to act on a consumer’s behalf and bring identity verification to AI commerce. Only the consumer can instruct the agent on what to do and when to activate a payment credential
• AI-powered personalisation: The consumer is in control. Consumers share basic Visa spend and purchase insights with their consent to improve agent performance and personalise shopping recommendations
• Simple and secure AI payments: Allows consumers easily to set spending limits and conditions, providing clear guidelines for agent transactions. Commerce signals are shared in real-time with Visa, enabling Visa to effect transaction controls and help to manage disputes
Visa claims that its payment technologies, including tokenisation and authentication APIs, will help enable transactions to be secure and seamless, providing confidence for consumers using AI to shop and buy.