At the Visa Payments Forum (VPF) in Paris, which brings together more than 2,000 key representatives from the payments industry to highlight the trends and innovations shaping the future of payments, Visa (NYSE: V) announced today, Thursday, the launch of agentic commerce transactions in real-world conditions in Europe.
According to the press release, AI agents make purchases through partner merchants’ websites on behalf of cardholders.
In these transactions, the AI agents browsed, selected products, and completed purchases, operating within the parameters set by the consumer. Through its network, Visa connects banks, merchants, and AI systems, enabling secure and authenticated transactions in full compliance with the European regulatory framework.
These transactions are supported by Visa Intelligent Commerce, Visa’s framework of initiatives for secure AI-powered shopping experiences, which are carried out with the consumer’s explicit authorization, with AI agents operating strictly within predefined limits and parameters set by the user.
Agentic commerce implemented across the entire ecosystem
Visa is already supporting and expanding real-time agentic commerce transactions in Europe, in collaboration with more than 30 card issuers, enabling AI agents to make purchases on behalf of cardholders, with the participation of merchants such as lastminute.com, Frasers, Cleverbridge, and BrickDepot.
These transactions span various sectors, including travel, retail, and e-commerce, demonstrating that agentic commerce can now be applied in real-world scenarios and across a wide range of everyday consumer needs.
This milestone marks the next phase of Visa’s global Agentic Ready program in Europe, bringing together the necessary infrastructure, standards, and partners required to develop agentic commerce in practice.
“We are now seeing AI agents making direct purchases on behalf of consumers from independent merchants,” said Sevi Vassileva, General Manager for Greece, Cyprus, Malta, and Israel at Visa. “The next step is to consolidate this innovation by bringing the entire ecosystem together—from standards and infrastructure to partners and providers—with trust built in from the very beginning. We used this approach to establish contactless payments, and we’re following the same path as we shape the future of commerce.”
Alessandro Petazzi, CEO of lastminute.com, said: “At lastminute.com, our role has always been to take full ownership of the travel experience—not just to inspire it, but to bring it to life. This involves managing complexity: flights, hotels, payments, and real-time changes. We are already a trusted link in the transaction chain, and as artificial intelligence changes the way people search and plan, this role becomes even more important.
Visa’s work in the area of identity and trust is what makes real-world implementation possible. We’re still in the early stages, but this is the right testing ground, and we’re excited to be part of it.”
For the first time, merchants can participate
Merchant participation is made possible through Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol (TAP) and Agent Directory, which are designed to help merchants securely identify and collaborate with certified AI agents across different platforms and environments.
These capabilities provide a secure way to authenticate agents, allowing merchants to distinguish trustworthy AI-driven transactions from unverified activities, while maintaining control over how agents access their websites, locate products, and complete transactions.
Without requiring new infrastructure, these capabilities can be integrated into existing risk management systems, security policies, and user experience management tools. TAP is designed to work alongside both existing and new e-commerce protocols, enabling merchants to adopt it immediately.
The implementation is supported by infrastructure providers, including Cloudflare and Akamai.
Secure Transactions via AI Agents
Issuing banks can participate through Visa Payment Passkeys, which provide a reliable and compatible way to authenticate transactions initiated by AI agents on behalf of consumers.
Each transaction is securely authorized and directly linked to a verified user and their explicit instruction, ensuring that the consumer retains full control over when and how payments are made, while also ensuring full compliance with European requirements for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
By verifying the cardholder’s identity and authenticating a trusted AI agent, Visa provides a critical level of trust, enabling transactions to be completed securely with full transparency and control.
Shaping the Future of Digital Commerce
By enabling trusted interactions between AI agents, merchant websites, and issuing banks, Visa helps address key barriers to the adoption of agentic commerce—such as consumer control over transactions, merchant trust, and full oversight by banks.
Since all of the above are already functioning in real-world conditions, agentic commerce can be gradually expanded to more sectors and markets across Europe. This model also extends to commercial and B2B payments, where the same principles of secure and reliable transactions enabled by AI agents can enhance business efficiency and productivity.
Visa Agentic Ready Program Partners
Issuing banks that have completed transactions via AI agents with participating merchants, using Visa Payment Passkeys and in full compliance with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements, include:
Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank, Abanca, Bankinter, Barclays, BBVA, CaixaBank, Ceska Sporitelna, comdirect, Commerzbank, Cornèrcard, Bank of Cyprus, Deutsche Kreditbank, HSBC UK, ING, Klarna, Lloyds Banking Group, mBank, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest, Nexi Group, Nordea Bank, OP Cooperative, PKO Bank Polski, Revolut, S-Payment, Swisscard, Tatra banka, Banca Transilvania, Vanquis Bank, Viseca.