Visa builds payment infrastructure for AI agents to shop on your behalf

Visa has positioned itself on the forefront of agentic commerce infrastructure, creating fee protocols that permit AI brokers to make purchases on behalf of shoppers whereas sustaining safety requirements similar to conventional eCommerce transactions. The corporate joined Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol initiative introduced January 11, 2026, aligning with Mastercard, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Goal, and Walmart to ascertain open-source technical requirements for AI brokers executing purchases throughout retail platforms.

Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s Senior Vice President and World Head of Development Merchandise and Strategic Partnerships, detailed the corporate’s method throughout a September 2025 podcast look on The Clever Marketer. His position encompasses AI and agentic commerce merchandise, crypto and stablecoins, and world enterprise growth for the fee community that connects 10,000 to fifteen,000 banks with 150 to 200 million retailers serving 4.5 billion credentials worldwide.

The corporate introduced its Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) integration in late 2024, establishing technical requirements for the way AI brokers can entry and make the most of fee credentials inside conversational interfaces like ChatGPT. Visa’s participation within the Common Commerce Protocol extends these capabilities into broader business requirements enabling any compliant AI agent to transact with any compliant service provider globally. Birwadker emphasised that Visa can not afford a wait-and-see method given its community duties. “We virtually should outline how we imagine the compatibility would work,” he acknowledged, noting the crucial to take care of constant shopper experiences whether or not transactions happen in Tel Aviv, Mumbai, San Francisco, or Bogota.

Defining agentic commerce boundaries

Birwadker supplied a exact definition distinguishing agentic commerce from conventional eCommerce: the edge crosses when shoppers function in an atmosphere that isn’t a service provider atmosphere however ask software program to execute purchases at retailers on their behalf. “You might have all these new intermediaries which are including an infinite quantity of worth that sit within the center,” he defined, pointing to AI platforms that curate, contextualize, evaluate, and personalize earlier than changing intent to precise purchases.

This differs essentially from delegated purchases or subscription companies. A shopper looking Macys.com or standing in an AMC theater knowingly interacts straight with retailers by conventional interfaces. Agentic commerce introduces middleman software program layers that take id, credentials, and information payloads to retailers after the buyer expresses intent by pure language prompts or automated triggers.

The transactions can execute instantly or conditionally. An AI agent would possibly current 4 kinds of pink socks from totally different retailers, buy the chosen possibility immediately, or wait till a value threshold is met days later. In each eventualities, the agent automates actions shoppers would ordinarily carry out manually, working from contextual understanding slightly than express button clicks.

Token-based safety structure

Visa designed its agentic commerce infrastructure round authenticated tokens slightly than exposing Main Account Numbers (PANs) and Personally Identifiable Data (PII) to AI brokers. The method mirrors Google Pay and Apple Pay implementations, binding tokens representing playing cards to particular units and purposes.

Birwadker outlined the three-layer safety mannequin. First, tokenization prevents delicate information from circulating with brokers, eliminating eventualities the place compromised programs leak fee credentials to darkish net marketplaces. Second, authentication throughout preliminary card provisioning includes financial institution verification—a trusted supply for shopper validation. This step up course of identifies whether or not particular shoppers are reliable earlier than permitting token creation.

As soon as provisioning completes, the system drastically reduces fraud vectors. “Anything that occurs shouldn’t be going to be allowed on the token,” Birwadker defined. The authentication binds tokens to express configurations: particular shoppers on particular financial institution playing cards inside particular purposes on particular units. Deviation from these parameters blocks transaction makes an attempt.

Third, Visa applied biometric authentication at buy time when human-in-the-loop verification is chosen, additional narrowing fraud publicity. The corporate developed fee instruction information payloads that match agent buy makes an attempt towards shopper pure language prompts earlier than issuing cryptograms. Brokers can not execute purchases with out these cryptograms, that are solely generated after confirming alignment between meant and precise purchases.

“We do not know how and what the kinds of frauds we’ll see,” Birwadker acknowledged, noting the infrastructure launched in very early phases. He recommended reassessment after accumulating thousands and thousands of transactions, admitting potential over-correction however emphasizing that fraud prevention warrants conservative approaches. “You wish to ensure that that stage of precision shouldn’t be misplaced with regards to your cash.”

World scaling challenges

Scale issues prolong past United States implementation. In response to Birwadker, 70 to 80 p.c of customers for main language fashions and AI platforms function outdoors the USA, necessitating fee programs that perform throughout numerous regulatory environments.

European markets current Fee Providers Directive 2 (PSD2) necessities together with 3D Safe authentication requirements and merchant-level step-up verification. Australia imposes native routing necessities. Canada includes Interac integration. Mexico maintains distinct market traits. “Each market is totally different, and it’s totally onerous for fee strategies which are designed for a comparatively slim use case to really scale,” Birwadker famous.

The expertise should accommodate industrial playing cards, small enterprise credentials, and shopper playing cards throughout different use circumstances and geographies. Visa’s experience in world scaling differentiates its method from fee strategies restricted to particular areas or transaction varieties. This compatibility requirement drove the corporate’s give attention to standardized infrastructure adaptable to native rules slightly than geography-specific implementations.

Service provider and financial institution diversifications

Past agent-side infrastructure, Visa addresses considerations from each retailers and issuing banks. Banks fear about name middle visitors from shoppers disputing purchases the place intent could also be misplaced in pure language translation. A shopper would possibly declare they requested for one product whereas the agent interpreted the request otherwise. In contrast to button clicks that present clear motion data, conversational prompts introduce ambiguity.

Visa is creating dispute, chargeback, and fraud guidelines particularly for agentic contexts to offer readability and actionability whereas stopping points earlier than they escalate to formal disputes. Banks in markets outdoors the USA usually contain fewer companions than the USA market’s longer tail of monetary establishments, probably accelerating adoption in areas the place six to eight banking partnerships present near-universal protection.

Retailers face totally different challenges. They have to determine find out how to expose stock pages, pricing particulars, and order info to brokers with out exposing programs to malicious bots. Content material Supply Community (CDN) suppliers already implement protocols distinguishing good bots from unhealthy bots and controlling entry ranges. Visa’s position includes integrating with this infrastructure so retailers acknowledge authenticated Visa credentials as alerts of reliable buy intent.

“Service provider web sites aren’t designed for AI,” Birwadker noticed. “They’re designed for human beings, identical to font colour, sizes, buttons, interstitials, an agent does not care about any of that.” Retailers should create architectural forks servicing brokers otherwise than human guests, enabling fast navigation and transaction completion. Most merchant-side work at present focuses on CDN-level recognition of authenticated credentials slightly than fee processing, which happens additional downstream.

Shopify exemplifies service provider adaptation by making Mannequin Context Protocol servers accessible for brokers navigating Shopify web sites and accessing order particulars. Birwadker characterised this as “as tech-forward as another firm you might have a look at from a service provider perspective,” anticipating broader architectural refactoring to accommodate agent visitors.

Startup ecosystem involvement

Visa’s definition course of intentionally included startup participation slightly than limiting collaboration to established banking companions. Birwadker credited govt management for sustaining tech-forward orientation and leveraging geographic proximity to Silicon Valley firms. Visa invested early in Sq. (2010-2011), Stripe, and Marqeta, staying near innovation communities.

“We all know what we do not know,” he acknowledged, acknowledging that experience for fixing onerous issues concentrates amongst entrepreneurs elevating capital to deal with particular challenges. The corporate hosted dinners inviting agentic commerce startups to take part in requirements discussions, recognizing that efficient innovation requires each startup ingenuity and established infrastructure compatibility.

This twin method balances startup innovation with ecosystem scalability. New fee improvements should work for hundreds of banks, thousands and thousands of retailers, and billions of credentials. “With out working with the ecosystem, we do not wish to do issues subscale, they should work at scale,” Birwadker defined, noting that Visa’s model energy manifests in common compatibility slightly than slim implementations.

Shopper adoption patterns

Visa conducts common shopper analysis revealing constant themes: security, safety, and cash safety stay elementary constructing blocks. Early adoption concentrates the place buy inefficiencies create friction. Birwadker shared a colleague’s instance of household trip planning with 4 kids—beforehand a four-hour comparability purchasing undertaking throughout resorts, airways, places, climate, and actions, now compressed to half-hour by prompt-based suggestions.

The invention funnel’s first 80 p.c collapses quickly as AI handles analysis historically requiring handbook effort: restaurant opinions, menu particulars, venue environment, location climate. “The person work that went in to do this goes to simply collapse,” Birwadker predicted, figuring out this as a right away class for agentic adoption.

One other class encompasses purchases shoppers should full however favor to not spend time executing: invoice funds, hire, tuition. These recurring obligations turn into early automation targets as soon as belief solidifies. Nevertheless, Birwadker emphasised that bodily commerce did not disappear when eCommerce emerged, and agentic commerce will not change current channels. Shoppers nonetheless stroll into AMC theaters to buy tickets or browse Ray-Ban shops regardless of on-line options.

“If I used to be to make a prediction, I feel you’d see a proportion of the world of commerce transfer to agentic, however the different channels are going to exist they usually’re simply going to evolve,” he acknowledged, envisioning bodily commerce, eCommerce, cell commerce, app commerce, and agentic commerce coexisting.

Asian market improvements

Birwadker noticed significantly fascinating developments from mega wallets based mostly in Asia—tremendous apps with a whole bunch of thousands and thousands or billions of customers offering complete companies. These platforms by no means replicated efficiently in the USA regardless of a number of makes an attempt, however they place themselves on the forefront of agentic commerce innovation.

“They have already got a captive viewers of a whole bunch of thousands and thousands if not over a billion customers,” he famous, describing how these firms design experiences that preserve customers inside native environments slightly than redirecting to exterior retailers. The captive person bases allow aggressive experimentation with agentic options for audiences already conducting important parts of day by day life by these purposes.

Asian, Center Japanese, and African markets present robust overlap between agentic commerce evolution and stablecoin adoption. Stablecoins handle product-market match gaps the place playing cards do not meet shopper wants, significantly in markets with excessive forex volatility or restricted digital infrastructure. Shoppers in these environments favor holding cash in stablecoins tied to secure currencies. “In many of the international locations the place we’re seeing plenty of stablecoin adoption in rising markets, sometimes we do not actually have lots of people domestically utilizing playing cards,” Birwadker noticed.

Fewer banking companions in lots of worldwide markets in comparison with the USA accelerates potential adoption. Attaining country-wide protection would possibly require solely six to eight banking partnerships, simplifying coordination in comparison with the USA market’s intensive tail of monetary establishments.

Model and discovery questions

Birwadker acknowledged uncertainty about how model dynamics will evolve for retailers. Small retailers at present depend on promoting—phrase of mouth, influencer advertising, social media platforms—to draw shoppers. Agentic commerce will rework promoting mechanisms, although particular evolution paths stay unclear.

The optimistic state of affairs suggests clever expertise would possibly democratize discovery. “If really, possibly high quality shines over the rest, and possibly they’ve a better method to get found as a result of brokers will work out like, oh, that is the very best product as a result of I did all this algorithmic math within the center,” Birwadker posited, imagining an obscure artisan in a Japanese village surfacing to San Francisco patrons by agent analysis slightly than promoting spend.

Nevertheless, the inverse concern persists: established manufacturers with captive audiences and sources would possibly construct proprietary brokers sustaining shopper relationships. A loyal Nike buyer would possibly favor interacting with Nike’s agent for personalised suggestions slightly than consulting impartial intermediaries. Price-consciousness varies by shopper and buy class, including complexity to prediction.

“I really actually really suppose these are elementary questions that basically, actually need to get answered,” Birwadker acknowledged, noting very early alerts with out clear directional traits. From Visa’s perspective, the precept stays that credentials ought to work identically for enterprise retailers and particular person widget sellers, with constant processing, disputes, chargebacks, and model ensures no matter service provider measurement.

Loyalty program alternatives

Birwadker expressed private pleasure about potential loyalty program transformation. He recalled predictions from 10 to fifteen years in the past about location-based gives—strolling previous Starbucks and receiving promotional notifications—that by no means materialized. “Closing the loop on attribution, information, personalization, by no means actually got here to go,” he mirrored, describing present loyalty programs outdoors airways as “sort of janky.”

Agentic commerce would possibly lastly remedy these issues by combining context, information, and personalization whereas sustaining privateness. “I actually, actually hope individuals go construct superior issues in agentic that make me a extra loyal buyer, but in addition provides me a way more enriched expertise,” he acknowledged, characterizing satisfying shopping for experiences as helpful shopper outcomes.

From Visa’s institutional perspective, success means rolling out agentic commerce requirements to as many world markets as doable through the coming yr and reaching performance. Birwadker recognized a particular accomplishment metric: “Tens of thousands and thousands, if not a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of customers utilizing the Visa playing cards to purchase issues in an agentic atmosphere at higher or decrease fraud than they do at present in an eCommerce atmosphere.”

Common Commerce Protocol partnership

Visa endorsed Google’s Common Commerce Protocol launched January 11, 2026, positioning the corporate alongside Mastercard’s Agent Pay infrastructure as open-standard infrastructure suppliers slightly than proprietary platform operators. The UCP establishes REST and JSON-RPC transport layers defining how AI brokers uncover merchandise, negotiate checkout parameters, hyperlink buyer identities, and handle post-purchase workflows with out customized integrations for every service provider.

Greater than 20 firms endorsed the protocol together with fee networks Visa and Mastercard, fee processors Adyen and Stripe, and retailers Finest Purchase, Flipkart, Macy’s Inc., The House Depot, and Zalando. Google co-developed UCP with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Goal, and Walmart, releasing technical specs and enabling native checkout directly within Google’s AI Mode and Gemini app.

The protocol incorporates three complementary requirements: Agent Funds Protocol offering cryptographic transaction authorization, Agent2Agent enabling multi-agent collaboration, and Mannequin Context Protocol for instrument calling from AI assistants. Visa’s authenticated token method integrates with these specs, extending tokenization and biometric verification mechanisms throughout the broader ecosystem.

This open protocol technique contrasts with Amazon’s method of blocking third-party AI brokers to guard $56 billion in annual promoting income. Universal Commerce Protocol aims to make checkout buttons obsolete by enabling brokers to finish purchases by standardized APIs slightly than simulating human interactions with service provider web sites. Visa’s endorsement alerts dedication to infrastructure enabling any agent to transact with any service provider slightly than walled gardens the place platforms management each brokers and transactions.

Birwadker’s September 2025 commentary anticipated this business route when discussing startup ecosystem involvement. The corporate’s resolution to incorporate startups in requirements definition mirrored recognition that fee infrastructure requires each established community compatibility and modern approaches from entrepreneurs addressing particular challenges. “We all know what we do not know,” he acknowledged, acknowledging that fixing onerous issues requires collaboration past conventional banking partnerships.

The corporate’s elementary mission stays digitizing the world and enabling shoppers to pay and receives a commission anyplace with Visa credentials. Agentic commerce represents a brand new channel requiring the identical safety, fraud prevention, and world accessibility that characterizes current commerce strategies. “Every part else is bells and whistles,” Birwadker concluded. “The bread and butter is how can we make shoppers to buy in a protected, safe, fraud-free atmosphere as broadly all over the world as doable?”

Timeline

• 2010-2011: Visa made early investments in Sq., establishing sample of engagement with fee expertise startups
• October 2016 – March 2018: Birwadker served as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Visa
• April 2018 – November 2020: Promoted to Head of Digital Partnerships, North America
• November 2020 – March 2022: Led position as Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships and Fintech
• February 2022 – October 2024: Served as World Head of Investments and Acquisitions, main company growth, M&A, ventures, and integration
• November 2024: Birwadker appointed to present position as SVP, World Head of Development Merchandise and Strategic Partnerships, overseeing AI and agentic commerce merchandise, crypto and stablecoins, and world enterprise growth
• Late 2024: Visa introduced Mannequin Context Protocol integration for agentic commerce
• September 23, 2025: Birwadker mentioned Visa’s agentic commerce technique on The Clever Marketer podcast
• January 11, 2026: Google launched Universal Commerce Protocol with Visa endorsement alongside Mastercard, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Goal, Walmart, and extra companions
• January 11, 2026: Mastercard introduced Agent Pay infrastructure at Nationwide Retail Federation convention
• January 11, 2026: Target and Walmart enabled native checkout in Google’s AI assistant by UCP implementation

Abstract

Who: Rubail Birwadker, Senior Vice President and World Head of Development Merchandise and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, main the corporate’s initiatives in AI and agentic commerce merchandise, cryptocurrency and stablecoins, shopper and non-card merchandise, and world enterprise growth. Visa operates a community connecting 10,000 to fifteen,000 banks with 150 to 200 million retailers serving 4.5 billion credentials globally.

What: Visa developed fee infrastructure particularly designed for agentic commerce—transactions the place AI brokers make purchases on behalf of shoppers slightly than shoppers straight interacting with service provider interfaces. The system makes use of authenticated tokens sure to particular units and purposes, layered safety together with biometric verification, and cryptogram era that validates buy intent earlier than execution. The corporate introduced Mannequin Context Protocol integration enabling this performance inside conversational AI platforms.

When: Visa’s investments in fee expertise startups started in 2010-2011 with Sq., establishing patterns of innovation engagement. Birwadker assumed his present management position overseeing development merchandise and strategic partnerships in November 2024, the identical interval when Visa introduced its MCP integration. The September 23, 2025 podcast interview supplied detailed technical disclosure concerning the firm’s agentic commerce method and safety structure.

The place: Visa’s agentic commerce infrastructure should perform globally throughout numerous regulatory environments together with European PSD2 necessities, Australian native routing mandates, Canadian Interac integration, and Mexican market traits. The corporate emphasised that 70 to 80 p.c of main language mannequin customers function outdoors the USA, necessitating worldwide compatibility. Significantly robust innovation alerts emerge from Asian mega pockets platforms with captive audiences exceeding a whole bunch of thousands and thousands or billions of customers.

Why: The fee community’s core duty requires sustaining compatibility with rising applied sciences slightly than adopting wait-and-see approaches. Visa should guarantee constant shopper experiences throughout 190 international locations no matter transaction context—bodily retail, eCommerce, cell, or agentic environments. The corporate prioritizes safety considerations given unknown fraud vectors which will emerge when shoppers entrust software program with buying authority, designing layered protections that possible over-correct initially. Visa endorsed Google’s Common Commerce Protocol on January 11, 2026, becoming a member of greater than 20 firms establishing open-source technical requirements for AI-mediated commerce. This positioning displays strategic selection between open interoperable protocols versus proprietary platform-controlled ecosystems, with Visa favoring infrastructure enabling any agent to transact with any service provider slightly than walled gardens limiting competitors. Success metrics give attention to enabling tens or a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of customers to finish agentic purchases at fraud charges higher than or similar to present eCommerce transactions whereas scaling globally throughout banks, retailers, and fee credentials.