Visa’s AI Payments Push Sparks New Compliance Concerns
By CU Today Staff —
SAN FRANCISCO—Visa’s new framework for so-called “agentic commerce,” which would allow artificial intelligence agents to make purchases and complete payments on behalf of consumers, could create significant compliance challenges for merchants, payment providers and financial institutions as the technology moves toward broader adoption, according to an analysis by attorneys at Stinson LLP, Law360 reported.
In a Law360 report, the attorneys said Visa’s framework, designed to enable payments without direct consumer-merchant interaction, raises questions around existing disclosure requirements, fee transparency rules, authorization standards and consumer-protection obligations.
Traditional payment regulations generally assume a consumer is directly involved in initiating a transaction, while agentic commerce relies on AI systems acting under delegated authority.
The concerns come as Visa accelerates development of its Intelligent Commerce platform and predicts AI-driven purchasing will become mainstream beginning in 2026. The company has reported completing hundreds of real-world agent-initiated transactions through pilot programs and is working with merchants, fintechs and technology providers to establish standards for AI-powered commerce.
For payments providers and lenders, analysts have stated that the key issue may be determining responsibility when transactions go wrong. Industry groups and legal experts have warned that existing frameworks for dispute resolution, consumer disclosures and transaction authorization may not fully address purchases initiated by AI agents, potentially requiring new compliance controls and consumer safeguards as agentic commerce expands.
Originally reported by CU Today.