Visa is redefining the future of commerce with the unveiling of Visa Intelligent Commerce, a sweeping new initiative announced Wednesday, April 30, during a live product showcase in San Francisco. The payments giant introduced a host of innovations designed to power artificial intelligence-driven commerce, enable seamless payments for AI agents, and expand financial accessibility across the globe through new tools for mobile wallets and micro-sellers.
For Visa, this marks a bold step into a commerce landscape that is rapidly shifting toward autonomous digital transactions and real-time consumer personalization. The announcement reflects years of groundwork built on Visa’s global payments network, now fused with artificial intelligence, tokenization, and privacy-first personalization to support what executives describe as “agent-led commerce.”
“This is a world we all want to live in—and now, we can,” said Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa, addressing a live studio audience and global livestream. “We are on the verge of a seismic shift in how people shop, buy, and engage with commerce. With Visa Intelligent Commerce, we are delivering secure, AI-driven payments designed to work at scale, globally, with trust at the core.”
Building the Foundation for AI-Driven Commerce
Visa’s vision for Intelligent Commerce is rooted in a reimagined payments infrastructure built on what the company calls its “Visa as a Service” stack. Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product Officer, explained that the stack integrates Visa’s global connectivity, APIs, authentication layers, and personalization tools into a single platform that empowers both consumers and businesses—whether they are a small fintech in Nairobi or a global bank in London.
“Digital money isn’t just about being faster,” said Forestell. “It’s about being better—safer, more reliable, and smarter. Our role is to bring these capabilities together so any business, any platform, can operate at scale from day one.”
Visa now processes over 630 million transactions each day. Since 2000, it has handled more than 3.3 trillion payments globally—each with hundreds of data points. The company is now turning that rich data into contextual insight, using AI to detect behavioural rhythms in commerce, whether it’s an evening spike in Ramadan spending or a tourist making a tap payment in a foreign city. These insights underpin the company’s new personalization features, helping both buyers and sellers enjoy more relevant, seamless transactions.
Visa Intelligent Commerce: From Vision to Reality
At the centre of the announcement was the formal launch of Visa Intelligent Commerce, a unified solution that enables AI agents to complete transactions securely on behalf of users. Forestell demonstrated how Visa is solving one of the most pressing challenges in the emerging agent-based economy: how to empower AI tools with payment capabilities while preserving trust, control, and security.
“When your AI agent plans a trip to Miami or buys a fishing reel on your behalf, it needs to do more than browse,” Forestell said. “It needs to transact. But to do that, it must have the tools and guardrails to spend your money securely—with your permission and only on your terms.”
To make this possible, Visa has developed five interlocking services: AI-ready cards with tokenization and authentication; secure agent-enabled payment flows; personalization powered by consent-based data sharing; and APIs that verify purchase intent and deliver contextual payment data at the moment of transaction. Together, they allow users to give agents specific purchasing authority while retaining full visibility and control over their transactions.
“Without the payment, there’s no commerce. There’s just browsing,” said McInerney. “Our technology enables the magic to continue—seamlessly and securely.”
Trust and Transparency at the Core
Trust emerged as a recurring theme throughout the presentation, especially in the context of AI. “This is new territory,” said Forestell. “We are giving agents the ability to access your money. That means ensuring not only that they’re secure, but that they’re acting only on your behalf—and only within the permissions you’ve granted.”
Visa’s approach involves binding a tokenized version of a user’s card directly to their AI agent. This means the token can only be used within that agent environment, offering an added layer of security. Users must also authenticate themselves before granting their agent access, and consent can be revoked at any time.
The personalization engine was another highlight. Visa demonstrated how insights derived from a user’s own transaction history—without sharing raw data—could vastly improve AI-driven commerce. For example, an AI assistant planning a trip to Miami for a user who dislikes the beach might suggest motorsport activities or a Post Malone concert, based on past purchases.
“Our goal is not just to make commerce faster,” said Forestell, “but to make it fit you better. The power of personalization, if done responsibly, is transformative.”
Collaborations with AI Leaders
Visa’s move into AI commerce is backed by a growing list of collaborators that include OpenAI, Perplexity, Microsoft, Anthropic, and Mistral. Each is contributing to the effort to make agent-led shopping safe, intuitive, and scalable. Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI and former CEO of Nextdoor, appeared in a pre-recorded interview to share her perspective.
“We love what Visa is doing,” Friar said. “They’re not just solving technical challenges, they’re addressing the human ones—trust, transparency, and usability. Those are the things that will make this work at scale.”
Friar emphasized that OpenAI’s own products, including browser-based agents already capable of booking flights or reserving rides, often stall at the point of payment. “It’s at that moment that the experience breaks down,” she said. “Visa is helping build the bridge.”
Expanding Access: Visa Pay and Visa Accept
Alongside its AI-focused products, Visa also announced new tools aimed at increasing payment access in developing markets and among micro-sellers. Visa Pay allows mobile wallet users to spend anywhere Visa is accepted, effectively expanding local apps into global payment vehicles. Initial rollouts are planned with Line Pay in Taiwan, ZaloPay in Vietnam, Maya in the Philippines, and Woori Card in South Korea.
For small sellers without hardware terminals, Visa Accept turns an NFC-enabled smartphone into a tap-to-pay terminal with no additional hardware. “If you’re a street vendor in Guatemala or Vietnam and you have a smartphone and a bank account, you can accept Visa payments in minutes,” said McInerney.
These tools reflect Visa’s ongoing commitment to financial inclusion and digital accessibility, a theme that remains central to its global strategy.
Additional Innovations: Digital Identity, Flex Credentials, and Stablecoins
Visa also provided updates on several other key initiatives. Its Flexible Credential product, which allows users to toggle between debit, credit, and other funding sources from a single card, is gaining traction globally. New partnerships with Klarna and Liv were announced, along with integrations in Europe and the U.S.
The company reaffirmed its goal of reaching 100% tokenization of digital transactions, a move aimed at reducing online fraud. Visa is also piloting biometric-based payment passkeys and enhanced data-sharing protocols to improve authorization rates and cut down on transaction declines.
On the stablecoin front, Visa revealed that it has already processed over $225 million in USDC settlements and expects to cross $1 billion in volume within 12 months. Through its tokenized asset platform, Visa is now helping banks like BBVA issue their own stablecoins—a move that could signal a broader transition toward programmable money.
Looking Ahead: Bringing Everyone Along
To close the event, Oliver Jenkyn, Visa’s Group President of Global Markets, highlighted the company’s commitment to working closely with its partners—from banks and merchants to AI platforms—to bring Visa Intelligent Commerce to life in local markets.
“This is not just a Silicon Valley project,” said Jenkyn. “From Johannesburg to Singapore to Toronto, our teams are working with yours to make this vision real.”
Jenkyn emphasized that the success of agent-led commerce depends not just on technical feasibility, but on widespread adoption. “We need to bring everyone with us,” he said. “Not just developers and fintechs, but people like my retired mother in rural Canada, or your artist friend in Cairo. That’s what it will take.”
