Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, stated that the 'agentic web' represents the biggest opportunity in payments technology in two decades. This involves AI agents handling shopping, negotiation, selection, and payment processes autonomously. By 2030, such AI-driven transactions are expected to account for between 15% and 25% of all US e-commerce purchases, translating to $300 billion to $500 billion in transaction volume.
Visa sees this trend expanding the payments ecosystem in four key areas: reducing payment friction, accelerating transaction density, modernizing B2B payments, and boosting overall economic activity. These advancements can increase transaction success rates and volumes, enabling smaller, more frequent payments and reducing manual business-to-business transaction processes.
However, this shift also presents risks. AI agents optimize costs, potentially driving down interchange fees and posing a threat to traditional payment networks by commoditizing the payment process. Visa is addressing these challenges with initiatives like its Trusted Agent Protocol, aimed at establishing secure agent-mediated transactions.