Visa opens access to AI shopping economy

Source: Lineshree Moodley, country manager of Visa South Africa.

As consumers increasingly rely on AI agents to make purchasing decisions, the platform provides a streamlined entry point for merchants, developers and payment enablers.

Through a single integration by means of the Visa Acceptance Platform, it enables secure, agent-initiated transactions with tokenisation, authentication and spend controls. By supporting both Visa and non-Visa cards, the solution expands payment flexibility while accelerating adoption of agentic commerce across global digital ecosystems.

“From small businesses to the world’s biggest retailers, Visa powers how people pay every day, millions of times over,” said Lineshree Moodley, country manager of Visa South Africa.

“Intelligent Commerce Connect brings that same, trusted payment acceptance infrastructure into the emerging world of AI-driven commerce, so businesses can let AI agents buy on behalf of consumers, securely and at scale.”

The key benefits of Intelligent Commerce Connect are that it:

• Works with major network token providers: Agent platforms can plug into existing credential infrastructure and avoid being locked into a single vendor.

• Seamless acceptance of agent‑initiated payments: Enables merchants to accept payments initiated by means of major agent protocols including: Trusted Agent Protocol, Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), and Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
• Makes merchant catalogs discoverable on AI platforms: Helps merchants make product inventories and details, including descriptions, specifications, and prices, accessible so consumers can discover, select, and check out within AI platforms.
• Supports enablers processing agentic transactions on merchants’ behalf: Visa Acceptance Platform can handle orchestration and PCI compliance for enablers supporting merchant transactions.
• One integration via Visa Acceptance Platform: Available through a single trusted integration on the Visa Acceptance Platform, a modular suite of payments tools that power millions of places where consumers pay – like online or in-app checkouts and marketplaces.