Visa has rolled out a new system that allows artificial intelligence (AI) to not only suggest items to buy but also complete purchases for users. The newly launched platform, called Visa Intelligent Commerce, lets AI assistants shop on your behalf — while keeping your financial data secure.
The announcement was made recently during Visa’s event in San Francisco. This marks a step towards AI taking on more day-to-day tasks for users, including buying products, booking services, and managing online orders — all based on your instructions.
AI That Does More Than Just Help You Shop
Today, many AI tools can help people find products or services online. But when it comes to actually completing the purchase, those systems often stop short. Visa is working to close that gap by allowing these tools to also handle payments.
To do this, Visa has teamed up with top tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, OpenAI, Samsung, and others. Their combined goal is to build a secure way for AI to handle payments without needing access to your actual card details.
How the Technology Works
Instead of using your real credit or debit card numbers, the platform turns your card information into a digital token — a safe, coded version of your payment data. These tokens are used by approved AI agents when carrying out transactions.
Users still stay in control. You can set limits on how much the AI can spend, pick which types of stores it’s allowed to use, or even require a manual approval before it pays.
For example, you might ask your AI to book a hotel room under a certain price or order groceries every week. The AI would then search websites, compare options, and make the purchase — all without you needing to fill out your payment details each time.
Safety Is the Main Priority
Visa is aware that letting AI spend money on your behalf might raise concerns. That’s why they’ve built strong protections into the system. Only AI agents that you’ve approved can access your tokenized payment info. Every transaction is monitored in real time by Visa’s fraud-detection systems — which have already helped prevent billions in fraud before.
The company is also using data tools that protect your privacy. When the AI needs data to personalize your shopping, it uses temporary access methods that keep you in charge of what’s shared.
Visa believes this could be the next big change in online shopping, similar to past shifts from physical stores to websites, and then from computers to phones. With their global network already in place, Visa is prepared to support this new way of shopping across many countries.
Developers can start using the tools now, and test programs will roll out soon. As AI becomes part of daily life, Visa hopes this new system will make everyday shopping faster, easier, and more secure.
