INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGY: DIGITAL PAYMENTS

Visa Intelligent Commerce is a suite of integrated APIs and a partner program that uses Visa’ s secure infrastructure to support safe, transparent, consentdriven payments made by AI agents. It incorporates tokenisation, authentication, payment instructions and transaction signals to enable AI agents to operate securely and visibly while giving consumers confidence to rely on AI for online shopping and payments.

AI-driven retail traffic has surged more than 4,700 % in the past year and most shoppers who have used AI say it improved their experience. To meet this demand, Visa is strengthening its infrastructure, standards and capabilities to support AI-powered commerce and open new opportunities for consumers across Asia Pacific.

In the near future, AI agents integrated into everyday platforms will be able to transact using Visa’ s 4.8 billion credentials across millions of global merchant locations. Consumers could simply ask an AI agent to book travel or buy tickets and have the purchase executed securely, backed by Visa’ s network and protections.

A central element of Visa Intelligent Commerce is Trusted Agent Protocol, a new ecosystem-led framework that gives merchants strong assurance in an AI-driven environment. Trusted Agent Protocol allows merchants to recognise and verify trusted AI agents with genuine commerce intent, addressing concerns as AI-generated traffic grows. It uses agent-specific cryptographic signatures to distinguish legitimate agents from malicious bots, prevent fraud and maintain visibility into the consumer behind the agent.

Trusted Agent Protocol is designed as an open, low-code solution that merchants can adopt without overhauling existing systems. It ensures AI agents act with transparency, verified intent and secure credentials, enabling merchants to treat AI-driven purchases with the same confidence as humaninitiated ones.

T. R. Ramachandran, Head of Products and Solutions, Asia Pacific at Visa, said:“ Agentic commerce is redefining online transactions and requires a unified ecosystem to reach its full potential. With Visa Intelligent Commerce and Trusted Agent Protocol, Visa is connecting consumers, AI agents and merchants through secure, scalable solutions that ensure every interaction is verified and transparent.”

Visa is collaborating with major players in AI, technology and payments such as Ant International, LG Uplus, Microsoft, Perplexity, Stripe and Tencent to enable agentic commerce. These partnerships reflect Visa’ s vision of an interconnected environment where AI agents and the payment ecosystem work together to deliver intelligent, trusted commerce experiences.

Visa says these initiatives signal its long-term commitment to shaping the future of digital payments, ensuring that as AI evolves, consumers and businesses benefit from greater security, efficiency and seamless interaction.

By laying this groundwork now, Visa aims to position APAC as a leader in emerging intelligent, agentpowered commerce. p

32 INTELLIGENTCIO APAC www. intelligentcio. com