Visa and a group of European financial entities have launched pilot tests to validate purchases made by artificial intelligence (AI) agents in real scenarios, as reported this Thursday by the payment multinational in a statement.
To date, these experiments had only been developed in controlled test environments. With this new step, AI agents have begun to operate directly with independent merchants, executing acquisitions according to the instructions and preferences set by the cardholders.
In these first experiences under real conditions, AI agents have browsed product catalogs, chosen items, and initiated the purchase process, always respecting the parameters set by each consumer. "Visa connects banks, merchants, and AI systems through its network to enable secure and authenticated agentic transactions, in compliance with European regulatory requirements," the company explained.
Among the entities that have already completed an operation managed by an AI agent are the Spanish banks Abanca, Bankinter, BBVA, and CaixaBank. They are joined by other major international groups such as Barclays, HSBC, Nordea, CommerzBank, and Revolut.