Security remains a priority as interest in AI ‘personal shoppers’ grows
Visa aims to lay the groundwork for secure and seamless transactions as agentic commerce reshapes how people shop and pay
E-commerce has given consumers access to goods globally. It has also created what Adeline Kim, Visa’s country manager for Singapore and Brunei, calls a “cognitive burden”: “scrolling through hundreds of products to find the right one.”
This consumer shift is driving interest in agentic commerce, she observed. Agentic commerce enables artificial intelligence (AI) agents to independently browse, compare and buy products based on consumer preferences and goals.
Though momentum around agentic AI is gaining, mainstream adoption will hinge on positive user experiences, Kim said, which could be affected by AI-related concerns including data privacy, algorithmic bias and fraud risk.
“It’s essential (for) every transaction to maintain trust, as commerce becomes more automated,” she explained. “It’s also important that consumers can control their experience, even if an agent carries it out.”
Visa verifies consumer and agent identities and confirms that an AI agent has permission for a purchase before a transaction occurs, she said.
Digital natives, frequent online shoppers, and those in markets with advanced infrastructure like Singapore, the US, and parts of Asia-Pacific are likely to be early adopters of agentic AI. Already, Visa has observed consumers actively using AI chatbots to help with shopping decisions, Kim said.
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An August 2025 analysis by Adobe Digital Insights found that 85 per cent of US consumers who have used AI for shopping said that it improved their experience.
In response to this shift, the US-based payments giant unveiled Visa Intelligent Commerce in April 2025. It is an AI platform that enables AI agents to deliver personalised and secure shopping experiences.
Visa also recently launched its Model Context Protocol server, which lets AI agents connect securely to Visa Intelligent Commerce and build agentic experiences more easily and quickly. Additionally, it piloted an Acceptance Agent Toolkit that lets merchants integrate agent-led tasks without coding.
Safety paramount
To protect sensitive information and prevent fraud, the company will leverage tokenisation, risk monitoring and real-time authentication, including biometrics such as fingerprint, face and voice recognition. In data security, tokenisation replaces sensitive data, like credit card details, with unique codes.
In September, Visa launched its Trusted Agent Protocol, an agentic commerce framework designed to enable safer agent-driven checkout by helping merchants distinguish trusted AI agents from malicious bots.
85%
of US consumers who have used AI for shopping said it improved their experience, reported Adobe Digital Insights in August
It has also engaged hundreds of clients globally on Visa Intelligent Commerce, said Kim, providing access to its sandbox and collaborating on pilot partnerships. Visa is working with tech heavyweights Grab, Microsoft, Stripe, Tencent, and AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI.
Kim said the firm will continue rolling out Visa Intelligent Commerce across the US and APAC this year, and globally in 2026.
“Singapore will be one of the launch markets to serve as a global test bed,” she said, adding that the region offers a “huge opportunity” for agentic commerce, as consumers and businesses here are early adopters of new technologies.
The focus now is to ensure every market is “AI commerce-ready”, she adds, “laying the foundation for safe payments (and) providing critical capabilities for agentic commerce to flourish.”
This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.
For more stories, go to https://bt.sg/sff2025
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