Agentic commerce is often described as a new channel or a natural extension of digital commerce — but in reality, it introduces entirely new characteristics that reshape how transactions are initiated, authenticated, and managed. As AI‑driven agents begin to act more independently, the underlying payments infrastructure must evolve in ways that preserve trust, accountability, and security at global scale. This is where Visa plays a critical role in shaping what comes next.
How is agentic commerce evolving
At its core, agentic commerce raises fundamental questions around trust and intent. When a transaction is initiated by an agent rather than a consumer, how can businesses be confident it reflects the consumer’s true intent? How can transactions be authenticated, secured, and executed as intended — across authorization, fulfillment, and post‑purchase? These solutions do not involve incremental changes to existing systems. In fact, 49% of acquirers say regulatory or compliance uncertainty must be resolved before agent‑initiated payments can scale, and 45% say liability frameworks need to be clarified or redesigned.¹ These figures underscore that agentic commerce requires foundational change.
Visa’s role in the development of agentic commerce
Visa’s role is to help ensure that the services businesses already rely on — risk management, authentication, tokenization, and dispute handling — operate just as effectively in agentic commerce as they do in traditional and digital transactions. These capabilities cannot be bolted on after the fact. They must be designed to function within intelligent, automated workflows where decisions happen in real time and at scale.
This is precisely what underpins Visa’s work in Intelligent Commerce. Rather than creating parallel systems, Visa is extending proven capabilities into the agentic ecosystem to align with where the industry is already focusing its investment. Sixty‑one percent of acquirers have evaluated explainability tools for agent‑initiated transactions, while 96% rate agent‑governance and permission tooling as important over the next three years, and 95% say explainability of agent decisions is critical.¹ These priorities reflect a shared understanding that trust in agentic commerce depends on visibility, control, and clear decision logic.
The critical role of customer intent
A crucial part of this evolution is strengthening the connection between consumer intent and transaction execution. In an agentic environment, intent cannot be inferred — it must be verifiable. That means tying agent activity back to a real consumer through consent, identity binding, and credential management. Today, 43% of acquirers cite establishing identity or credential‑binding standards for AI agents as essential, and 93% say consent and data‑governance frameworks are important, even though ownership across the ecosystem remains fragmented.¹ Visa’s platform is designed to help resolve this fragmentation by anchoring agent‑initiated transactions to trusted identity and permission models.
Post‑purchase activity adds another layer of complexity. In agentic commerce, managing refunds, disputes, subscriptions, and adjustments requires clear understanding of how and why a transaction occurred. This clarity matters financially as well as operationally: 64% of merchants report rising levels of first‑party misuse, and the average cost to resolve a single misuse‑related dispute now exceeds $80.² Extending trust and visibility across the full transaction lifecycle is essential as automation increases.
Let’s talk payments
Ultimately, Visa’s role in the future of agentic commerce is about helping enable innovation without compromising trust. By adapting foundational services to work in autonomous environments—and by embedding governance, explainability, and intent into every transaction — Visa helps the ecosystem scale responsibly. Agentic commerce may be new, but trust remains timeless, and Visa is building the infrastructure to support it at global scale.
¹ How Acquirers Prepare for Agentic Commerce (2026), PYMNTS Intelligence, commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions, A Visa Company, a survey of acquirers across the U.S., Brazil, and the UAE.
² 2026 Global eCommerce Payments & Fraud Report, Merchant Risk Council (MRC) – commissioned by Visa Acceptance Solutions, A Visa Company & Verifi, A Visa Company.
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