Latest news with #GlobalProductDrop
Forbes
07-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
What Visa's Big Bet On AI-Driven Commerce Means For The Future Of Shopping
Visa plans to revolutionize the shopping experience with its Intelligent Commerce solution. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved What if your credit card could think for you? Visa just unveiled a bold new vision for the future of shopping. Imagine a world in which AI agents browse, buy, and manage purchases on your behalf. This is not a concept. It is happening now. At its first-ever Global Product Drop last week, Visa unveiled its sweeping 'Visa Intelligent Commerce,' initiative, which aims to reimagine how customers shop, pay, and interact with brands in an increasingly AI-driven world. Collaborating with major players like OpenAI, Perplexity, Mistral, Microsoft, and IBM, Visa made clear that it does not intend to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution. Instead, the company is leaning in. Visa is opening up its payment infrastructure to developers, laying the groundwork for a new generation of AI-powered interactions. But what does this actually mean for the day-t0-day shopping experiences, and what are some broader implications for financial services and beyond? Visa's Intelligent Commerce is built around the concept of 'agentic AI." Put simply these are autonomous digital agents that can handle everything from browsing and selecting to buying and managing purchases. Think of a virtual assistant that knows your purchasing habits and can act accordingly without your constant supervision. Visa is collaborating with some of the larges tech platforms as part of its new initiatives. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved Visa's AI-ready cards, which replace traditional card numbers with tokenized credentials, are central to this. These credentials authorize trusted AI agents to act on a consumer's behalf with security and identity verification built in. The result is an experience that is less 'simple, not seamless' according to CEO Ryan McInerney. This isn't theory. Visa is opening its payment rails and APIs to developers, effectively inviting the ecosystem to build the tools of this future, whether that is a personal travel planner, a smart grocery restocker, or a digital wardrobe curator. How AI-Driven Commerce is Pushing Incumbents to Act Like Startups For years, the consensus was that legacy financial institutions could not compete with startups on speed. Visa's Demo Day challenges that assumption. From the polished product launch format to the rapid collaboration with leading AI firms, Visa is showing it can move with startup-level agility when the stakes are high. Visa's Product Drop highlights how incumbents are rapidly catching up to early stage companies when ... More it comes to innovation. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved This shift has meaningful implications for early-stage fintechs. Speed alone is no longer a defensible advantage. If a startup is not commercial-ready from day one, it may need to reassess its go-to-market strategy. As has been proven time and time again, many fintechs are not as innovative as they claim. Companies that are simply filling UX gaps should continue to expect to see larger players closing this gap more quickly than ever. The Ethics and Experience of AI-Driven Commerce Visa's vision of frictionless AI-powered shopping raises deeper questions about consumer agency and values. What happens when buying becomes automatic? Can brand loyalty survive when algorithms prioritize speed and convenience? To date, there is little infrastructure for expressing consumer values—such as preferences for cruelty-free or sustainable products—within AI agents. While platforms like Ethic and JustInvest have explored values-aligned investing, Visa's CPO Jack Forestell noted that this kind of preference expression is not yet in the product roadmap. But it should be. Capturing intent and aligning purchases with values could be the next major frontier in personalization. Financial Wellness and Era of AI-Driven Commerce The promise of Intelligent Commerce also brings inherent tensions. Visa emphasizes a number of user controls including spending limits, AI credential authorization, and real-time transaction signals. These features are designed to offer both security and peace of mind. But cynics will argue that Visa, like most payments platforms, profits from higher spend, not restrained consumption. AI is coming for your wallet. getty Yet there is strategic upside to encouraging long-term financial wellness. Consumers who feel Visa has their back may stay within its ecosystem longer, fostering brand loyalty in an era of commoditized payments. This aligns with a broader trend of platforms positioning themselves as 'financial wellness' partners, not just transaction enablers. The Real Estate Gap in AI Payments Notably missing from Visa's AI roadmap is real estate. The average American now spends nearly one third of their income on rent. This is an all-time high. Americans spend 30% of their income on rent. getty Despite attempts by startups like Bilt to make rent payments more accessible via credit, the sector remains fragmented. Bilt's success has required heavy capital and steep customer acquisition costs, raising the question: How long can first-mover advantage last? With 44 million U.S. households paying rent and the median mortgage payment hovering above $2,000, this is a massive blind spot in the AI commerce story. Until AI can manage recurring housing payments with the same ease as groceries or flights, the vision remains incomplete. Will AI Supplement or Supplant Human Touch? Visa's Intelligent Commerce imagines a world where AI handles our everyday transactions. But will that future eliminate the need for human input? Just as the rise of search did not kill curation, and mobile banking did not end branch relationships, agentic AI may supplement rather than supplant. There will still be demand for white-glove experiences, emotional nuance, and human judgment. This is likely to especially be true in high-stakes purchases or values-driven decisions. In the meantime, Visa has fired a clear signal: AI-driven commerce is not a distant future. It is a fast-arriving present. And incumbents are not just watching - they are building.
Business Insider
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
The future is here: Visa announces new era of commerce featuring AI
Lagos, Nigeria – April 30, 2025 – The future of commerce is on display at the Visa Global Product Drop with powerful AI-enabled advancements allowing consumers to find and buy with AI plus the introduction of new strategic partnerships and product innovations. 'As new ways to pay emerge, they need to run on a network that is always on – that is safe, secure, scalable and relentlessly innovating,' said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney. 'We are taking the power of our network and our decades-long expertise to bring new products and solutions that will transform commerce and bring trust and security to AI-enabled payments.' Product Roadmap Visa kicked off its Global Product Drop by sharing how the combination of AI and digital commerce will mark a significant shift in the way consumers discover and buy products and services. In the near future, consumers will enable AI agents to browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf. For this to be possible, agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only by users, but by banks and sellers as well. Visa will bring this trust to AI commerce by providing a simple way for our partners – AI platforms, tech players, banks, fintechs, merchants and more – to access the Visa network. This is the next step in Visa's journey to connect even more buyers and sellers through seamless, secure digital payments. Headlining the announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce, a groundbreaking initiative that opens Visa's payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of true AI commerce. Visa also announced new stablecoin partnerships to reach more people and geographies. Finally, Visa shared the expansion of its Flex Credential platform, and new products and services that provide more ways for people to pay and get paid. The advancements introduced today will enable the next wave of commerce and money movement. Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era In the last 25 years, Visa's network has processed 3.3 trillion transactions. Visa will extend the infrastructure, standards and capabilities present in physical and digital commerce today to AI commerce. Soon consumers will enable AI agents via AI platforms to use a Visa credential (of which there are 4.8 billion today) at any accepting merchant location (currently totaling over 150 million) for any payment use case. 'Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing it to help combat fraud. Now, we will also enable AI to empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant and more delightful,' added McInerney. 'For any AI commerce use case to take hold, the payment is a critical enabler of success. If there is no payment, there is no commerce. That's the expertise and trust that Visa brings.' To move the needle on AI commerce at the speed and scale required, the company is collaborating with the AI platforms and brands that consumers and merchants are choosing to work with every day, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung. 'We see tremendous potential for the role AI agents will play in commerce, from streamlining 'regular' transaction-driven tasks such as ordering groceries, to more sophisticated search and decision-making like securing that hard-to-get restaurant reservation or concert ticket,' said Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer. 'This will be a transformative change, bringing more magic and convenience to the consumer experience and creating a new world that will forever change how we shop and buy.' New Products, Advancements and Capabilities Visa continues to invest in new features and capabilities that help extend the reach of its network and provide secure and seamless payment experiences. Stablecoins: For over half a decade, Visa has been facilitating crypto transactions and is now further expanding the applications for stablecoins with stablecoin-linked cards, settlement and programmable money. Bridge, a Stripe company, is working with Visa on a new card product that enables fintech developers to offer stablecoin-linked Visa cards to their end customers in multiple countries through a single API integration. Flex Credential Expansion: Last year, Visa reinvented the card with the introduction of the Flex Credential, a next generation card that can seamlessly toggle between different payment methods (debit, credit, buy now, pay later). Today, millions of people around the world are using the Flex Credential and Visa plans to roll out new use cases like expanding access to lines of credit, investment accounts, rewards, commercial cards and more. Unveiled today, Visa and Klarna are partnering to bring the Flex Credential to the U.S. and will be the first in Europe to offer a debit-to-buy now pay later use case that gives consumers more flexibility in how they pay. More details will be announced later this year. Introducing More Ways to Pay and Get Paid: Visa is also announcing more ways for consumers, merchants and partners to pay and get paid around the world. Visa Pay is a new service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online. Visa Pay is set for beta release in select markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Visa Accept is a new offering to give micro-sellers a 'way to get paid' to their eligible Visa debit card, from any NFC-capable smartphone with just a few clicks, providing access to billions of credentials with just one card in your pocket. Visa Accept is being released for Visa beta partners in July, with the first activations in Latin America and Asia. About Visa Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at
Tahya Masr
06-05-2025
- Business
- Tahya Masr
Visa Announces New Era of Commerce Featuring AI
The future of commerce is on display at the Visa Global Product Drop with powerful AI-enabled advancements allowing consumers to find and buy with AI plus the introduction of new strategic partnerships and product innovations. 'As new ways to pay emerge, they need to run on a network that is always on – that is safe, secure, scalable and relentlessly innovating,' said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney. 'We are taking the power of our network and our decades-long expertise to bring new products and solutions that will transform commerce and bring trust and security to AI-enabled payments.' Product Roadmap Visa kicked off its Global Product Drop by sharing how the combination of AI and digital commerce will mark a significant shift in the way consumers discover and buy products and services. In the near future, consumers will enable AI agents to browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf. For this to be possible, agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only by users, but by banks and sellers as well. Visa will bring this trust to AI commerce by providing a simple way for our partners – AI platforms, tech players, banks, fintechs, merchants and more – to access the Visa network. This is the next step in Visa's journey to connect even more buyers and sellers through seamless, secure digital payments. Headlining the announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce , a groundbreaking initiative that opens Visa's payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of true AI commerce. Visa also announced new stablecoin partnerships to reach more people and geographies. Finally, Visa shared the expansion of its Flex Credential platform, and new products and services that provide more ways for people to pay and get paid. The advancements introduced today will enable the next wave of commerce and money movement. Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era In the last 25 years, Visa's network has processed 3.3 trillion transactions. Visa will extend the infrastructure, standards and capabilities present in physical and digital commerce today to AI commerce. Soon consumers will enable AI agents via AI platforms to use a Visa credential (of which there are 4.8 billion today) at any accepting merchant location (currently totaling over 150 million) for any payment use case. 'Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing it to help combat fraud. Now, we will also enable AI to empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant and more delightful,' added McInerney. 'For any AI commerce use case to take hold, the payment is a critical enabler of success. If there is no payment, there is no commerce. That's the expertise and trust that Visa brings.' To move the needle on AI commerce at the speed and scale required, the company is collaborating with the AI platforms and brands that consumers and merchants are choosing to work with every day, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung. 'We see tremendous potential for the role AI agents will play in commerce, from streamlining 'regular' transaction-driven tasks such as ordering groceries, to more sophisticated search and decision-making like securing that hard-to-get restaurant reservation or concert ticket,' said Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer. 'This will be a transformative change, bringing more magic and convenience to the consumer experience and creating a new world that will forever change how we shop and buy.' New Products, Advancements and Capabilities Visa continues to invest in new features and capabilities that help extend the reach of its network and provide secure and seamless payment experiences. Stablecoins: For over half a decade, Visa has been facilitating crypto transactions and is now further expanding the applications for stablecoins with stablecoin-linked cards, settlement and programmable money. Bridge, a Stripe company, is working with Visa on a new card product that enables fintech developers to offer stablecoin-linked Visa cards to their end customers in multiple countries through a single API integration. Flex Credential Expansion: Last year, Visa reinvented the card with the introduction of the Flex Credential, a next generation card that can seamlessly toggle between different payment methods (debit, credit, buy now, pay later). Today, millions of people around the world are using the Flex Credential and Visa plans to roll out new use cases like expanding access to lines of credit, investment accounts, rewards, commercial cards and more. Unveiled today, Visa and Klarna are partnering to bring the Flex Credential to the U.S. and will be the first in Europe to offer a debit-to-buy now pay later use case that gives consumers more flexibility in how they pay. More details will be announced later this year. Introducing More Ways to Pay and Get Paid: Visa is also announcing more ways for consumers, merchants and partners to pay and get paid around the world. • Visa Pay is a new service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online. Visa Pay is set for beta release in select markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America. • Visa Accept is a new offering to give micro-sellers a 'way to get paid' to their eligible Visa debit card, from any NFC-capable smartphone with just a few clicks, providing access to billions of credentials with just one card in your pocket. Visa Accept is being released for Visa beta partners in July, with the first activations in Latin America and Asia.
Al Bawaba
01-05-2025
- Business
- Al Bawaba
The Future is Here: Visa Announces New Era of Commerce Featuring AI
The future of commerce is on display at the Visa Global Product Drop with powerful AI-enabled advancements allowing consumers to find and buy with AI plus the introduction of new strategic partnerships and product innovations. 'As new ways to pay emerge, they need to run on a network that is always on – that is safe, secure, scalable and relentlessly innovating,' said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney. 'We are taking the power of our network and our decades-long expertise to bring new products and solutions that will transform commerce and bring trust and security to AI-enabled payments.' Product Roadmap Visa kicked off its Global Product Drop by sharing how the combination of AI and digital commerce will mark a significant shift in the way consumers discover and buy products and services. In the near future, consumers will enable AI agents to browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf. For this to be possible, agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only by users, but by banks and sellers as well. Visa will bring this trust to AI commerce by providing a simple way for our partners – AI platforms, tech players, banks, fintechs, merchants and more – to access the Visa network. This is the next step in Visa's journey to connect even more buyers and sellers through seamless, secure digital payments. Headlining the announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce, a groundbreaking initiative that opens Visa's payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of true AI commerce. Visa also announced new stablecoin partnerships to reach more people and geographies. Finally, Visa shared the expansion of its Flex Credential platform, and new products and services that provide more ways for people to pay and get paid. The advancements introduced today will enable the next wave of commerce and money movement. Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era In the last 25 years, Visa's network has processed 3.3 trillion transactions. Visa will extend the infrastructure, standards and capabilities present in physical and digital commerce today to AI commerce. Soon consumers will enable AI agents via AI platforms to use a Visa credential (of which there are 4.8 billion today) at any accepting merchant location (currently totaling over 150 million) for any payment use case. 'Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing it to help combat fraud. Now, we will also enable AI to empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant and more delightful,' added McInerney. 'For any AI commerce use case to take hold, the payment is a critical enabler of success. If there is no payment, there is no commerce. That's the expertise and trust that Visa brings.' To move the needle on AI commerce at the speed and scale required, the company is collaborating with the AI platforms and brands that consumers and merchants are choosing to work with every day, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung. 'We see tremendous potential for the role AI agents will play in commerce, from streamlining 'regular' transaction-driven tasks such as ordering groceries, to more sophisticated search and decision-making like securing that hard-to-get restaurant reservation or concert ticket,' said Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer. 'This will be a transformative change, bringing more magic and convenience to the consumer experience and creating a new world that will forever change how we shop and buy.' New Products, Advancements and Capabilities Visa continues to invest in new features and capabilities that help extend the reach of its network and provide secure and seamless payment experiences. Stablecoins: For over half a decade, Visa has been facilitating crypto transactions and is now further expanding the applications for stablecoins with stablecoin-linked cards, settlement and programmable money. Bridge, a Stripe company, is working with Visa on a new card product that enables fintech developers to offer stablecoin-linked Visa cards to their end customers in multiple countries through a single API integration. Flex Credential Expansion: Last year, Visa reinvented the card with the introduction of the Flex Credential, a next generation card that can seamlessly toggle between different payment methods (debit, credit, buy now, pay later). Today, millions of people around the world are using the Flex Credential and Visa plans to roll out new use cases like expanding access to lines of credit, investment accounts, rewards, commercial cards and more. Unveiled today, Visa and Klarna are partnering to bring the Flex Credential to the U.S. and will be the first in Europe to offer a debit-to-buy now pay later use case that gives consumers more flexibility in how they pay. More details will be announced later this year. Introducing More Ways to Pay and Get Paid: Visa is also announcing more ways for consumers, merchants and partners to pay and get paid around the Pay is a new service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online. Visa Pay is set for beta release in select markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Visa Accept is a new offering to give micro-sellers a 'way to get paid' to their eligible Visa debit card, from any NFC-capable smartphone with just a few clicks, providing access to billions of credentials with just one card in your pocket. Visa Accept is being released for Visa beta partners in July, with the first activations in Latin America and Asia.
Zawya
01-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
The future is here: Visa announces new era of commerce featuring AI
Launches new innovations and partnerships to drive flexibility, security and acceptance San Francisco – The future of commerce is on display at the Visa Global Product Drop with powerful AI-enabled advancements allowing consumers to find and buy with AI plus the introduction of new strategic partnerships and product innovations. 'As new ways to pay emerge, they need to run on a network that is always on – that is safe, secure, scalable and relentlessly innovating,' said Visa CEO Ryan McInerney. 'We are taking the power of our network and our decades-long expertise to bring new products and solutions that will transform commerce and bring trust and security to AI-enabled payments.' Product Roadmap Visa kicked off its Global Product Drop by sharing how the combination of AI and digital commerce will mark a significant shift in the way consumers discover and buy products and services. In the near future, consumers will enable AI agents to browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf. For this to be possible, agents will need to be trusted with payments, not only by users, but by banks and sellers as well. Visa will bring this trust to AI commerce by providing a simple way for our partners – AI platforms, tech players, banks, fintechs, merchants and more – to access the Visa network. This is the next step in Visa's journey to connect even more buyers and sellers through seamless, secure digital payments. Headlining the announcement, the company introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce, a groundbreaking initiative that opens Visa's payments network to developers and engineers building the first generation of true AI commerce. Visa also announced new stablecoin partnerships to reach more people and geographies. Finally, Visa shared the expansion of its Flex Credential platform, and new products and services that provide more ways for people to pay and get paid. The advancements introduced today will enable the next wave of commerce and money movement. Visa Intelligent Commerce: A New Era In the last 25 years, Visa's network has processed 3.3 trillion transactions. Visa will extend the infrastructure, standards and capabilities present in physical and digital commerce today to AI commerce. Soon consumers will enable AI agents via AI platforms to use a Visa credential (of which there are 4.8 billion today) at any accepting merchant location (currently totaling over 150 million) for any payment use case. 'Historically, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing it to help combat fraud. Now, we will also enable AI to empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital commerce to make it more personal, more relevant and more delightful,' added McInerney. 'For any AI commerce use case to take hold, the payment is a critical enabler of success. If there is no payment, there is no commerce. That's the expertise and trust that Visa brings.' To move the needle on AI commerce at the speed and scale required, the company is collaborating with the AI platforms and brands that consumers and merchants are choosing to work with every day, including Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Stripe and Samsung. 'We see tremendous potential for the role AI agents will play in commerce, from streamlining 'regular' transaction-driven tasks such as ordering groceries, to more sophisticated search and decision-making like securing that hard-to-get restaurant reservation or concert ticket,' said Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer. 'This will be a transformative change, bringing more magic and convenience to the consumer experience and creating a new world that will forever change how we shop and buy.' New Products, Advancements and Capabilities Visa continues to invest in new features and capabilities that help extend the reach of its network and provide secure and seamless payment experiences. Stablecoins: For over half a decade, Visa has been facilitating crypto transactions and is now further expanding the applications for stablecoins with stablecoin-linked cards, settlement and programmable money. Bridge, a Stripe company, is working with Visa on a new card product that enables fintech developers to offer stablecoin-linked Visa cards to their end customers in multiple countries through a single API integration. Flex Credential Expansion: Last year, Visa reinvented the card with the introduction of the Flex Credential, a next generation card that can seamlessly toggle between different payment methods (debit, credit, buy now, pay later). Today, millions of people around the world are using the Flex Credential and Visa plans to roll out new use cases like expanding access to lines of credit, investment accounts, rewards, commercial cards and more. Unveiled today, Visa and Klarna are partnering to bring the Flex Credential to the U.S. and will be the first in Europe to offer a debit-to-buy now pay later use case that gives consumers more flexibility in how they pay. More details will be announced later this year. Introducing More Ways to Pay and Get Paid: Visa is also announcing more ways for consumers, merchants and partners to pay and get paid around the world. Visa Pay is a new service designed to connect any participating wallet to any Visa-accepting merchant, local or international, in-store or online. Visa Pay is set for beta release in select markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America. Visa Accept is a new offering to give micro-sellers a 'way to get paid' to their eligible Visa debit card, from any NFC-capable smartphone with just a few clicks, providing access to billions of credentials with just one card in your pocket. Visa Accept is being released for Visa beta partners in July, with the first activations in Latin America and Asia. About Visa Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Media Contact Conor Febos cfebos@
