Agentic commerce has moved quickly. A year ago, much of the discussion was theoretical. Now payment networks, banks, and technology platforms are building systems that allow AI agents to search, select, and pay for products on a customer’s behalf.
Getting an agent to complete a payment is only the first step. To scale, everyone involved needs to know who authorised it, what it was allowed to do, whether it stayed within those limits, and who is responsible when something goes wrong. Until those questions can be answered consistently, agentic commerce is likely to remain confined to familiar retailers and tightly defined use cases.
What Visa’s Move Changes
Visa’s Intelligent Commerce Connect is a significant development. It gives AI agents a route through established payment infrastructure and adds controls around tokenisation, authentication, identity, and spending.
An agent-led payment needs to look different from stolen credentials or automated fraud. Providers need to know that an authorised agent initiated it on a legitimate instruction.
