Visa has introduced a new global initiative, Visa Agentic Ready, aimed at preparing the financial ecosystem for a future in which AI agents can autonomously initiate and complete secure transactions. This development reflects a broader shift in the payments landscape, moving away from traditional user-driven interactions toward automated, intent-based commerce.
The programme will initially launch in Europe and the United Kingdom and represents a key component of Visa Intelligent Commerce—a strategic framework designed to scale AI-driven payment experiences while maintaining high standards of security and trust.
In its first phase, the initiative is focused on enhancing issuer readiness. Visa is providing financial institutions with a structured environment that enables them to test and validate transactions executed by AI agents. Through collaboration with selected merchants, issuing banks are able to simulate and evaluate these automated transaction flows within controlled, real-world settings.
The primary objective of Visa Agentic Ready is to ensure that as AI agents assume a greater role in the consumer transaction journey, the underlying payment infrastructure remains secure, reliable, and resilient. The programme has already attracted strong industry participation, with several major financial institutions committing to early adoption and testing.
This initiative underscores Visa’s proactive approach to shaping the future of payments, positioning both issuers and partners to adapt effectively to the emerging paradigm of agentic commerce.
Through the programme, participating issuers will gain first-hand experience of how agentic commerce platforms can securely initiate and complete transactions on behalf of consumers, while maintaining the trust, control and protections that underpin the Visa network.
“As AI agents increasingly shape how people shop and buy, payments need to keep up,” says Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions, Visa Europe.
“Visa Agentic Ready will initially help European issuers prepare for secure, scalable agent‑initiated payments, built on infrastructure people already trust,” he adds.
A foundation of trust in Europe
While the ambitions for Agentic Ready are global, the decision to debut in Europe is a calculated move. The region’s high adoption rates of tokenisation, passkeys and biometric authentication provide a ready-made laboratory for sophisticated AI commerce.
Visa’s “trust layer” – a combination of identity verification and risk controls – acts as the engine for the programme, ensuring that every automated payment is tied to a verified individual with explicit consent.
Matías Sánchez, Global Head of Cards and Digital Solutions, Santander, notes: “This is a major step in making AI-assisted shopping practical. By testing a live transaction, we demonstrated how these technologies act as a key enabler of secure, interoperable agentic commerce within a connected payments ecosystem, linking banks, networks and merchants, while preserving consumer protections and controls.
“As part of this initiative, Banco Santander demonstrated a real-world use case by purchasing a book with a Santander España Visa card, showcasing the practical application of agent-enabled commerce.”
The phased rollout will help ensure these payments remain easy to run at scale. This evolution is critical as the shopping journey becomes increasingly programmable, moving toward a model where credentials respond flexibly to a consumer’s context.
Industry giants join the pilot
The programme has already secured a significant roster of Tier 1 financial institutions and neobanks. These partners are not just observing; they are actively validating how agent-initiated payments behave in the real world to build confidence before a wider commercial release.
For legacy players, the programme offers a safe harbour for experimentation. Tom Riley, Director of Group Retail Products, Nationwide, comments: “We’re delighted to join Visa’s Agentic Ready Program. This collaboration gives us the opportunity to innovate, explore and test new technologies in a safe and controlled environment, helping us understand how they could enhance the way our customers manage their money.
“Customer payments will continue as normal throughout these trials. At with all innovation, our priority is that it helps customers feel more confident, informed and in control.”
From concept to checkout
The practical application of this technology has already been demonstrated in live scenarios. Maintaining consumer protection is paramount as banks and networks become more deeply linked. For fintechs like Revolut, being at the forefront of this shift is a matter of keeping pace with the rapid evolution of AI tools.
Rom Jackson, Head of Product, Revolut Card Payments, explains: “As AI evolves into an active shopping tool, the underlying payment infrastructure must keep pace. By collaborating with Visa on Agentic commerce, we are ensuring that both humans and AI Agents can make a secure, instant, and safe payment with the Revolut Visa card. We are proud to work alongside Visa to enable this, ensuring our customers can leverage the full power of AI with the same world-class security they expect.”
The era of agentic commerce has landed firmly at the frontier of fintech, as innovation strives to keep up. Recently, retail giant Debenhams paired with PayPal to offer an AI assisted shopping experience for consumers. Digital payments are altering consumer expectations, from retail to even purchasing insurance products through ChatGPT, as Experian and Neptune Flood Insurance are demonstrating.
Andrew Rankin, Chief Payments Officer, HSBC UK, says: “We are pleased to be working with Visa to design and test a secure, reliable and fast new agentic payments ecosystem. As a leader in digital payments, HSBC UK is committed to increasing resilience and creating better experiences for our customers for both domestic and cross-border payments.”
Agentic AI infrastructure is now catching up to the interface, allowing the next generation of digital wallets to serve both human and machine users.