Visa expects AI shopping partners to double, but use is still tiny

Visa says it expects to double its nearly 50 live AI partners in the coming months. The payments company also admits that shopping done by AI is still very small. CEO Ryan McInerney shared both points on an earnings call on Tuesday.

What agentic commerce means

Agentic commerce is when an AI program shops or pays for something on your behalf. Visa's partners include Shopify, Stripe, Anthropic, OpenAI and Microsoft. A year ago, Visa said it wanted to drive "mass adoption" of the idea. McInerney now says it is "still very early" for consumers and "very small" next to Visa's overall business.

How small is it

Visa did not say how many of its 281 billion yearly transactions came from AI. In July, Mastercard cited research that put AI-agent purchases at 0.4% of global online transactions by volume and 0.2% by value. Visa's annual revenue was nearly $46 billion, up 15%.

What businesses should know

Visa said business-to-business payments, especially automatic invoice payments, will be among the first AI uses to gain real traction. If you run a business, that is the area most likely to reach you first.

What is not known yet

Forecasts vary widely. Some analysts predict a market worth up to $5 trillion by 2030. Others expect a tiny fraction of that. Visa gave no date for when AI payments might become common.