AI-Powered Shopping Revolution: Visa, Mastercard Embrace Artificial Intelligence for Seamless Transactions
In a groundbreaking move, Visa has unveiled its Intelligent Commerce program, a game-changer in the world of shopping. This initiative aims to position Visa as the foundational infrastructure for AI-driven transactions, integrating its secure payment network deeply into AI applications.
The heart of the program lies in AI-powered agents, which will conduct commerce on behalf of consumers. These agents will be equipped with credit card information and shopping limits, streamlining the checkout process. With a few clicks, customers could potentially buy products and services, and AI can even manage purchases, such as asking for a purchase limit or restocking items.
Moreover, the AI agents will be capable of suggesting products based on phrases like "Buy me the best" or "New headphones are coming out soon". Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer, has stated that these AI agents will soon be managing purchases on behalf of consumers.
The new feature is expected to hit the market in the coming months, and Visa has reportedly made claims about addressing AI errors, as reported by Handelsblatt. However, the potential liability in case of AI errors during shopping remains unclear.
Visa and Mastercard are planning to reduce shopping drop-offs by allowing AI agents to handle purchasing directly, potentially leading to more frequent purchases. This shift towards AI-driven shopping could signal a new revolution in shopping behavior.
For retailers, this shift means adapting to agent-driven commerce that challenges traditional interfaces and customer loyalty, requiring new strategies to maintain brand visibility and compete on convenience and price.
Visa aims to benefit by cementing its role as the core operating system in this new commerce paradigm, moving beyond being a payment processor to becoming the central system enabling secure, trusted AI transactions. The use of technologies like tokenization protects consumer data while enabling AI agents to transact securely and with authorized identity verification.
Visa's Intelligent Commerce program seeks key benefits such as expanding its market reach as the default payment framework embedded in AI commerce apps, enhancing security and reducing fraud through tokenization tailored for AI transactions, gaining valuable insights via "85+ personalization signals," enabling more relevant and intelligent commerce, and driving higher transaction volumes by unlocking new commerce models where AI agents transact autonomously, expanding the payment ecosystem.
Nils Heck, the founder of the journalist bureau dreimaldrei, the author of the monthly column "Nils noergelt," and the editorial director at Payment and Banking since March 2024, has critically examined trends in the payment and banking industry. He has expressed his observations on the potential impact of this new approach in increasing sales, which will only be evident in the coming months.
Interestingly, this development follows a similar move by Mastercard on a smaller scale. Meanwhile, ChatGPT has recently introduced its first shopping feature, resembling Google Shopping in chatbot format, further signalling the growing trend towards AI-driven shopping.
The goal of this new feature is to increase sales by making the shopping process more convenient for customers. However, the potential risk of AI agents making incorrect purchases is raised as a concern, but Visa claims they will find ways to address this issue.
This shift towards AI-driven shopping could mark a new era in consumer behaviour, where shopping becomes faster, safer, and more personalised, with Visa at the forefront of this exciting new development.
[References] 1. Visa's AI Strategy: Why Visa Will Dominate the AI-Driven Commerce Era 2. Agentic AI for Shopping Journeys 3. Visa Payments Vault
The Intelligent Commerce program by Visa will leverage technology to empower AI-powered agents for seamless commerce, integrating credit card information and shopping limits, streamlining the checkout process. These agents, capable of suggesting products and managing purchases, could potentially revolutionize shopping behavior.
The program's new AI feature is expected to address AI errors, as reported, and leverage technologies like tokenization for secure, authentication-verified transactions in AI-driven finance. This strategy is intended to position Visa as the central system in the new AI commerce paradigm, driving higher transaction volumes and expanding its market reach.
