AI Agents to Revolutionize Shopping by 2026: Visa and Mastercard Lead the Way

The Rise of AI-Driven Commerce

AI agents are poised to transform the way consumers shop, as payment giants like Visa and Mastercard prepare to integrate AI-driven purchasing capabilities within chatbots by 2026. This shift, known as "agentic commerce," represents the next evolution in global commerce, enabling AI systems to search for products, compare prices, and complete transactions seamlessly within a single interface.

Agentic commerce builds on the growing reliance of consumers on chatbots for everyday tasks, such as searching for products and deals online. However, until recently, these tools lacked the ability to finalize purchases within the chatbot environment, requiring users to switch to external platforms. Visa and Mastercard are now leading the charge to overcome this limitation, with early pilots already underway.

"A big shift in commerce happened when payments moved from a mostly brick-and-mortar world to an e-commerce world," said Sandeep Malhotra, Mastercard's EVP for Core Payments in Asia Pacific. "Now, we are seeing the next shift, which is moving from the e-commerce world to an agentic commerce world. We have gone from cash to digital, now we're going from digital to intelligent."

How Agentic Commerce Will Work

Agentic commerce leverages AI systems to act on behalf of users, curating options based on specific requests rather than requiring users to navigate multiple websites or apps. For example, a user could ask an AI agent to find the cheapest red-eye flight from Singapore to Tokyo under $500 with no stops. The agent would scan available options, book the tickets, and process the payment using stored credentials—all within the chat interface.

Mastercard's Malhotra highlighted that the technology could also facilitate offline purchases. For instance, shoppers could authorize agents to buy a product automatically if its price drops below a preset threshold, even when they are not actively using the chatbot.

Early use cases for agentic commerce are expected to include flight and vacation bookings, but the potential applications extend far beyond travel. As the technology matures, it could revolutionize how consumers interact with retailers, service providers, and financial institutions.

Pilots and Partnerships

Visa and Mastercard have already begun rolling out frameworks to secure bot-driven transactions and have completed pilot programs with selected users and merchants. T.R. Ramachandran, Visa's APAC Head of Products and Solutions, told CNBC that commercial use of personalized, secure agent transactions could begin as early as the first quarter of 2026.

"With over half of Visa's overall volume already through e-commerce and data showing demand for AI to assist with shopping, the ground is fertile for agentic commerce," Ramachandran said. A December survey by Visa found that nearly half of U.S. shoppers are now using AI to enhance their shopping experience, while a study from Adobe reported a 4,700% year-over-year increase in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites in July.

Agentic commerce transactions are expected to occur through popular AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, as well as through merchant-specific and bank-specific agents. Companies like Mastercard and Visa are collaborating with AI giants such as OpenAI to prepare for this shift. OpenAI launched a "Buy it in ChatGPT" feature in September, allowing instant checkouts within its platform, while Perplexity partnered with PayPal to roll out a free agentic shopping product for U.S. users in November.

Meanwhile, large merchants like Amazon are testing their own agentic commerce tools independently. Amazon began testing its "Buy For Me" feature earlier this year, while also working to block external AI agents from crawling its website, indicating the competitive tension surrounding this emerging technology.

Challenges and Concerns

Despite the promise of agentic commerce, several challenges remain. Security, liability, and dispute resolution are key areas of focus as pilots expand. Payment companies are working to develop "agentic tokens," which use cryptographic authentication to verify authorized AI agents and distinguish them from malicious bots. Visa launched its "Trusted Agent Protocol" in October with Cloudflare to create cryptographically authenticated records for bot-initiated transactions.

Another major concern is liability when AI agents make mistakes, such as booking a hotel room for the wrong date. Traditionally, disputes involved four parties: the consumer, the issuing bank, the acquiring bank, and the merchant. Now, AI platforms are inserting themselves into the value chain, complicating the process.

"You almost have to assume mistakes will happen and create guardrails and protection around that," said Ramachandran. Payment companies are working to establish robust guardrails, permissions, and dispute systems to address these challenges as the technology scales.

The Future of Shopping

Proponents of agentic commerce argue that it will save consumers time, reduce search costs, and provide better access to information and deals. However, merchants may face pressure to adapt as AI-driven price discovery and shifting consumer behaviors become more common.

"When price discovery and shopping ubiquity become the norm rather than the exception, it will be fascinating to see how companies adapt," said Visa's Ramachandran. Payment executives expect merchants to implement agent verification, create their own AI agents to interact with consumer agents, offer loyalty programs, and redesign their upsell strategies in response to the shift.

Despite the challenges, payment companies view the transition to agentic commerce as inevitable. "As to exactly when it will scale, that's less clear," Ramachandran said. "But based on our experience and overall [large language model] platform adoption, we're likely talking months rather than years."