Visa has launched Visa Agentic Ready, a global programme aimed at preparing the payments ecosystem for agent-initiated, AI-driven commerce.
The programme will first roll out in Europe, including the UK, building on Visa Intelligent Commerce, the company’s framework for enabling AI-enabled payment experiences.
Its initial phase focuses on issuer readiness, providing partners with a structured approach to test and validate transactions initiated by AI agents in controlled production environments.
Participating issuers will work with Visa and selected merchants to assess how agent-initiated payments can operate securely and at scale, while maintaining existing safeguards such as user consent and fraud controls.
“As AI agents increasingly shape how people shop and buy, payments need to keep up,”
said Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions at Visa Europe.
“Visa Agentic Ready will initially help European issuers prepare for secure, scalable agent-initiated payments, built on infrastructure people already trust.”
The programme leverages Visa’s existing systems, including tokenisation, identity verification, risk management and authentication tools.
These measures ensure that transactions initiated by AI agents remain tied to verified users and maintain appropriate oversight.
Visa selected Europe for the initial rollout due to its high adoption of technologies such as tokenisation and advanced authentication.
The testing phase will assess how agent-initiated payments function in real issuer environments and whether issuers can deploy them reliably at scale.
Early participants include major financial institutions such as Alpha Bank, Barclays, Commerzbank, HSBC UK, Revolut and Banco Santander, among others.
Visa said the programme forms part of its broader efforts to support the development of automated, programmable commerce, where payments can respond to user intent while maintaining security and control.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by Frolopiaton Palm via Freepik
