Visa has launched a new programme aimed at preparing banks and merchants for the rise of AI-driven transactions, as agentic commerce moves closer to real-world deployment.
The initiative, Visa Agentic Ready, is rolling out first across Europe, including the UK, and will focus initially on helping issuing banks test how AI agents can initiate and complete payments on behalf of consumers.
The programme builds on Visa’s wider Intelligent Commerce strategy and reflects growing momentum behind AI tools that can search, compare and purchase products with limited human input.
Mathieu Altwegg, head of product and solutions at Visa Europe, said: “As AI agents increasingly shape how people shop and buy, payments need to keep up. Visa Agentic Ready will initially help European issuers prepare for secure, scalable agent-initiated payments, built on infrastructure people already trust.”
The first phase will see participating issuers work with Visa and selected merchants to test agent-initiated transactions in controlled, production-grade environments. The aim is to understand how these payments can operate securely at scale, while maintaining existing protections for consumers.
Visa said the programme will leverage its existing infrastructure, including tokenisation, identity verification and risk controls, to ensure transactions remain linked to a verified individual and are authorised with appropriate consent.
Europe has been selected as the launch market due to its relatively high adoption of authentication technologies such as passkeys and biometrics, which are expected to play a key role in enabling secure AI-led transactions.
A number of major financial institutions have already joined the programme, including Barclays, HSBC UK, Nationwide Building Society and Revolut, alongside a broader group of European and international partners.
Early testing is already underway. Banco Santander has completed a live transaction using an AI agent to purchase a product with a Visa card, demonstrating how the model could work in practice.
Visa said the programme is designed to move agentic commerce from concept to reality by enabling collaboration between issuers, merchants and technology partners.
Further partners are expected to join the programme as it expands beyond its initial European rollout.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
