The future of commerce is being reimagined by artificial intelligence, with payments and tech giants actively constructing the infrastructure for AI agents capable of conducting searches, comparing prices, and executing purchases on behalf of consumers. This emerging trend, dubbed “agentic commerce,” is a direct reflection of consumers’ increasing reliance on chatbots for daily tasks, including online product discovery and deal hunting.
Historically, these AI tools have been limited. While users could initiate searches and compare options within a chatbot interface, the final step of completing a purchase still required a manual transition to a separate platform. Payment leaders like Visa and Mastercard are signaling a significant shift, reporting that this critical gap is rapidly closing. Over the past year, both companies have been aggressively establishing the necessary systems and forging partnerships to facilitate this next phase of commerce, with initial pilot programs already underway.
Executives within the payments industry suggest that agentic commerce could become a widespread reality by 2026, potentially ushering in a transformation even more profound than the advent of e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Sandeep Malhotra, Mastercard’s EVP for Core Payments in Asia Pacific, draws a parallel to the past: “A big shift in commerce happened when payments moved from a mostly brick-and-mortar world to an e-commerce world. Now, we are seeing the next shift, which is moving from the e-commerce world to an agentic commerce world. We have gone from cash to digital, now we’re going from digital to intelligent.”
**How Agentic Commerce Will Function**
While the granular details of agentic commerce’s implementation are still being refined, the core concept involves AI systems acting autonomously on behalf of users. These agents will be empowered to discover products, compare offers, and finalize payments, all within the conversational interface. This promises a more streamlined shopping experience, presenting curated options tailored to specific user requests, thereby eliminating the need to navigate multiple websites or applications.
Early use cases are expected to emerge in areas like flight and vacation bookings. Imagine a consumer instructing an AI commerce agent: “Find me the cheapest red-eye flight from Singapore to Tokyo under $500 with no stops.” The agent would then be equipped to scan available options, present choices, book the tickets, and process the payment using the user’s stored credentials, all seamlessly within the chat. Furthermore, Mastercard’s Malhotra indicates that this technology could enable shoppers to authorize agents for purchases even when offline, such as automatically buying a product if its price falls below a pre-defined threshold.
**Pilot Programs and Market Adoption**
Visa and Mastercard are actively deploying their foundational frameworks for securing bot-driven transactions and have completed initial pilot programs involving select users and merchants. T.R. Ramachandran, Visa’s APAC Head of Products and Solutions, anticipates that the commercial deployment of personalized, secure agent transactions could commence as early as the first quarter of 2026. With over half of Visa’s transaction volume already originating from e-commerce and mounting evidence of consumer demand for AI shopping assistance, the environment is ripe for agentic commerce.
A recent Visa survey revealed that nearly half of U.S. shoppers are already leveraging AI to enhance their shopping experiences, from finding gifts to comparing prices. Concurrently, an Adobe study highlighted a dramatic surge in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites, increasing by 4,700% in July compared to the previous year.
Transactions facilitated by agentic commerce are anticipated to occur across popular AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, as well as through merchant-specific, bank-specific, or app-specific agents. Leading companies like Mastercard and Visa are collaborating closely with AI powerhouses like OpenAI to prepare for this transition. OpenAI itself introduced a “Buy it in ChatGPT” feature in September, enabling instant checkouts within its platform. Similarly, Perplexity has partnered with PayPal, launching a free agentic shopping product for U.S. users in November. Concerned about potential price pressures and maintaining direct customer access, major retailers are also independently exploring agentic commerce tools. Amazon, for instance, has been testing its “Buy For Me” feature this year, while simultaneously working to restrict external AI agents from scraping its website data.
**Addressing Potential Challenges**
Despite the significant momentum, agentic commerce presents several potential structural, security, and liability concerns. A primary focus for payment companies has been the development of “agentic tokens,” which utilize cryptographic authentication to distinguish authorized AI agents from human users and malicious bots. Visa, in collaboration with Cloudflare, launched its “Trusted Agent Protocol” in October, establishing cryptographically authenticated records for bot-initiated transactions. Ramachandran also outlined Visa’s plans to incorporate “payment signals” for banks, offering enhanced transaction details and bolstering agent authentication through behavioral intelligence.
Another significant challenge revolves around liability when AI agents err, such as purchasing an incorrect item or booking an unintended reservation. Traditionally, transaction disputes involved four parties: the consumer, the issuing bank, the acquiring bank, and the merchant. “Now there is a fifth player in the value chain — AI platforms who have become inserted into the value chain because the customers want them there,” explained Ramachandran. “You almost have to assume mistakes will happen and create guardrails and protection around that.” These potential issues underscore the necessity for robust guardrails, stringent permissions, and sophisticated dispute resolution systems, which are currently being refined during the trial phases.
**The Broader Impact**
Proponents argue that agentic commerce will yield substantial benefits, including time savings, reduced search costs, and improved consumer access to information and deals. Malhotra reiterates, “I can only see benefits with agentic commerce. Consumers will have better access to information, better access to goods, better access to services and better experiences.”
Merchants, however, may face considerable pressure to adapt as AI-driven price discovery and evolving consumer behaviors become more prevalent. Ramachandran notes, “When price discovery and shopping ubiquity become the norm rather than the exception, it will be fascinating to see how companies adapt.” Payment industry executives anticipate that retailers will implement agent verification protocols, develop their own AI agents to interface with consumer agents, introduce loyalty programs, and rethink their upsell strategies.
Notwithstanding the existing challenges and uncertainties, payment companies maintain that the shift towards agentic commerce is inevitable. While the exact timeline for widespread adoption remains elusive, Ramachandran suggests, “Based on our experience and overall [large language model] platform adoption, we’re likely talking months rather than years.”
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