Visa Bets on Open Infrastructure as Payment Giants Race for Agentic Commerce

Artificial intelligence is changing not only how people search and communicate, but increasingly also how they shop. Major payment service providers are already positioning themselves for a future in which AI agents independently handle purchases on behalf of consumers. Visa, Mastercard, and Revolut have recently taken concrete steps in this direction.

Visa’s New Platform: Intelligent Commerce Connect

On April 8, 2026, Visa unveiled the Intelligent Commerce Connect platform, which is part of the overarching “Visa Intelligent Commerce” portfolio. The solution is aimed at companies that deploy AI agents, merchants that want to be served by these agents, and payment service providers that process such transactions.

At the core of the platform is a single integration via the Visa Acceptance Platform, through which companies gain access to secure payment initiation, tokenization, spending controls, and authentication. Merchants can make their product catalogs directly accessible to AI agents, enabling purchases to be completed without traditional checkout processes. The platform is currently in a pilot phase with selected partners, including Aldar, AWS, Diddo, Highnote, Mesh, Payabli, and Sumvin. General availability is planned for June 2026.

“Intelligent Commerce Connect brings this proven payment infrastructure into the emerging world of AI-driven commerce, so that businesses can let AI agents shop safely and at scale on behalf of consumers.” Andrew Torre, President of Value-Added Services at Visa

Why Visa Also Supports Third-Party Networks

A strategically significant aspect of Intelligent Commerce Connect is its deliberate openness beyond Visa’s own network. The platform integrates not only Visa’s own APIs, but also the interfaces of other card networks. AI agents can thus pay with both Visa cards and cards from other providers.

This approach is no coincidence: Visa is positioning itself as a neutral infrastructure layer for the entire agent-based commerce ecosystem, regardless of which card a consumer has on file. The platform is also compatible with various token vault providers, meaning companies are not tied to a single provider. Visa is thus betting on reach and trust rather than exclusivity in order to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving market.

What Mastercard Is Doing with Agent Pay

Mastercard has announced its own program for agent-based payments called Agent Pay. Central to it is the introduction of so-called Mastercard Agentic Tokens, which build on the company’s existing tokenization infrastructure and are designed to enable secure payments via conversational interfaces.

Mastercard is working closely with Microsoft to connect the AI technologies Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot Studio with the company’s payment solutions. Additional partners include IBM with its product watsonx Orchestrate for B2B use cases, as well as acquirers and checkout providers such as Braintree and Checkout.com. The program stipulates that AI agents must first be registered and verified before they are permitted to initiate payments on behalf of users. Consumers retain full control over what an agent is allowed to purchase on their behalf.

Revolut and Google’s AP2 Protocol

British neobank Revolut has integrated its payment solution Revolut Pay as one of the first European payment methods into Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). The protocol was introduced in September 2025 and aims to standardize payment processes for AI-powered shopping systems across platforms.

According to Revolut, the company not only implemented the protocol but also actively contributed to its further development, particularly in shaping payment processes between accounts. The solution is available to users in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area. All transactions run through Revolut’s existing infrastructure with real-time notifications and integrated fraud monitoring.

The Most Important Protocols at a Glance

In the area of agent-based commerce, several competing and complementary protocols have emerged. An overview:

• Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) by Google: Focused on secure payment processing in AI-driven systems. Developed by Google in collaboration with payment service providers such as Mastercard, PayPal, Adyen, American Express, and Revolut. The goal is to standardize transactions between AI agents, users, and merchants. A payment-method-agnostic framework.
• Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): A more comprehensive protocol covering the entire e-commerce process. Addresses not only payments but also product search, ordering, delivery, and customer service. Enables AI assistants to access various merchant systems via a unified interface. Also supported by Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect.
• Trusted Agent Protocol: One of the protocols supported by Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect for the authentication and identification of trusted AI agents in the payment process.
• Machine Payments Protocol (MPP): Also integrated into Visa Intelligent Commerce Connect. Targets machine-initiated payment transactions, such as those in automated B2B processes.
• Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP): Another protocol supported by Visa, specifically designed for agent-based commerce and standardizing communication between AI systems and merchant platforms.
• Agent2Agent (A2A) by Google: A complementary protocol that governs communication between different AI agents with one another; not primarily focused on payments.
• Model Context Protocol (MCP): Another protocol that standardizes context between AI models and external services, serving as a foundation for agent-based interactions.