Visa Brings Live AI-Agent Payments to Europe in Real Merchant Trials

Visa has announced the launch of live AI-driven commerce transactions across Europe, allowing AI agents to initiate purchases on behalf of cardholders.

The transactions were unveiled at the Visa Payments Forum in Paris and involved more than 30 European financial institutions, including Swiss issuers Cornèrcard, Swisscard and Viseca.

The system relies on the Visa Intelligent Commerce platform to connect financial institutions, merchants and AI networks.

Operating within strict parameters defined by the user, AI agents can search merchant websites, select items and stage transactions for checkout.

Consumers retain full control over their funds by authorising each payment before completion.

Verifying trusted agents

Merchants participate in the system through the Trusted Agent Protocol and the Agent Directory. These tools allow retailers to identify verified AI agents and distinguish them from unverified traffic or malicious bots.

This framework enables merchants to control how agents access their sites. It also governs how products are displayed and how transactions are prepared, without requiring entirely new infrastructure.

Passkey authentication for compliance

Financial institutions process these AI-initiated payments using Visa Payment Passkeys.

The system uses secure authentication credentials tied to the user to confirm identity. It also ensures compliance with European Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

“We are now seeing how AI agents can make purchases directly from real merchants on behalf of people. The next step will be to roll this out on a large scale,”

Santosh Ritter, Country Manager of Visa Switzerland and Liechtenstein, said.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by ismode via Magnific

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