Visa rises 1.3% as it sets AI agent payment standards

Visa teamed up with Mastercard and Ant International to build common standards for verifying artificial intelligence purchasing agents. Shares of the payments network gained roughly 1.3% to $366.229 on Thursday morning.

The company introduced its Trusted Agent Protocol, which provides approved AI agents with signed credentials that merchants can recognize. This framework separates legitimate shopping assistants from hostile bots without requiring retailers or payment processors to rebuild their underlying transaction infrastructure.

As AI software begins to select products, compare merchants, and initiate purchases for shoppers, Visa aims to retain control over authorization, tokenization, and fraud protection. The standards help secure Visa's role, though the overall financial benefit relies on AI agents driving new transaction volume rather than simply replacing existing consumer purchases.