Visa announced at the Visa Payments Forum in Paris this week that it has executed live, agent-based transactions across Europe. In these transactions, AI agents acted on behalf of cardholders on merchant websites: they browsed products, selected items and initiated purchases within consumer-defined limits.
What happened
Unlike previous tests in closed pilot stores, the transactions were carried out in a live environment with independent merchants. The AI agents performed the browsing and purchase actions according to the instructions and constraints set by the consumers.
Visa’s network connects issuing banks, merchants and AI systems to ensure that these transactions are authenticated and processed in line with European regulatory requirements.
Program and authentication
This step represents the next European phase of Visa’s global Agentic Ready program. Mathieu Altwegg, Visa Europe’s head of products and solutions, said: “AI agents are now able to execute purchases on behalf of users directly at independent merchants.” He added that the next priority is broader deployment across the ecosystem — from standards and infrastructure to partners and intermediaries — so that trust is embedded from the start.
Participation by issuers is enabled through Visa Payment Passkeys, which Visa describes as a reliable, regulatorily compliant method to authenticate transactions initiated by AI agents on behalf of consumers. By authenticating both the cardholder and the AI agent acting in their name, Visa aims to provide a crucial trust layer that allows agent-initiated transactions to proceed with transparency and appropriate controls.
Market context and related developments
Mastercard recently reported similar progress, and the announcement also notes that K&H Bank’s backend systems already support payments conducted by AI agents. These developments indicate that financial institutions are beginning to integrate authentication and transaction-handling solutions for agentic payments.
Why this matters
Authorizing live, agent-based transactions is a milestone because it moves the capability beyond closed demonstrations into real commercial settings. Visa’s action may accelerate work on standards, infrastructure and collaboration among industry participants, while the added authentication layers address trust and regulatory compliance concerns.
