Visa Declares Asia Pacific Will Lead Global Shift to Intelligent Commerce — Building Trust in AI Agent Payments Is Key

Visa's Asia Pacific President on the Future of AI Commerce

Visa Sees Asia Pacific Leading Global Shift to Intelligent Commerce

Visa's Stephen Karpin discusses Asia Pacific's intelligent commerce strategy and the region's readiness for AI-powered agentic payments.

On March 9, 2026, PYMNTS.com published an interview with Visa Asia Pacific President Stephen Karpin. Karpin stated that the Asia Pacific region will lead the world in the era of "intelligent commerce," where AI agents complete the entire journey from shopping to payment on behalf of consumers.

In Singapore, more than 75% of consumers already use AI language models to research and compare products. However, virtually no consumers are delegating actual "payments" to AI. Bridging this "gap between discovery and purchase" is the focal point of the next commerce revolution.

Background and Industry Trends

Agentic commerce -- where AI agents autonomously conduct purchasing activities -- has rapidly gained attention since the second half of 2025. According to Visa's official announcement, AI-driven traffic to retail sites has surged more than 4,700% over the past year. In response, Visa announced the expansion of "Visa Intelligent Commerce" at the Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2025.

Payment networks across the industry are focusing on this space. Mastercard has deployed its own Agent Suite, while Stripe has developed agentic payment APIs, as the entire industry rushes to support AI agents. Among them, Visa positions Asia Pacific's mobile-first environment as its greatest advantage.

In the region, 73% of online transactions occur on mobile devices, and 80% of product discovery happens through mobile-first channels. Super apps, QR payments, and real-time payment rails are already deeply embedded in consumer behavior, creating an optimal foundation for AI agents to operate.

Trust Is the Biggest Barrier to Agentic Payments

What Karpin repeatedly emphasized is that the biggest barrier to the adoption of AI agent payments is not "technology" but "trust."

"Trust has always been fundamental to commerce. When you're moving money around, it's critically important," Karpin stated. Consumers have no resistance to using AI for browsing and comparing products, but they remain cautious about entrusting AI with actual financial transactions.

To overcome this trust barrier, Visa has introduced the "Trusted Agent Protocol." According to Visa's announcement, this protocol uses agent-specific cryptographic signatures to provide an authentication layer that distinguishes legitimate AI agents from malicious bots. Through this mechanism, merchants can verify the legitimacy of AI agents initiating transactions while maintaining visibility into the consumers behind them.

Visa has already collaborated with over 100 partners globally and completed hundreds of live agent payment tests. Partners include major tech and payment companies such as Ant International, Microsoft, Perplexity, Stripe, and Tencent.

How Flex Credential Transforms AI Agent Payment Optimization

On the technical side, Visa is particularly focused on "Flex Credential." This mechanism allows a single payment credential to dynamically switch between multiple funding sources -- credit, debit, rewards points, BNPL (buy now, pay later), multi-currency accounts, and even stablecoins.

In agentic commerce, these switching decisions move away from consumers, with AI agents optimizing in the background. Karpin described this vision: "Think about an agent armed with multiple funding sources. That's a disruptive proposition."

Additionally, Visa's "Visa Accept" allows debit and prepaid card holders to receive payments directly to their accounts, blurring the boundary between consumers and merchants. For gig workers and micro-merchants, the ability to receive, spend, and manage funds with a single credential anticipates how agentic systems will function in the future.

Network of Networks Strategy and Interoperability

Visa has adopted a "Network of Networks" strategy, positioning interoperability as the key to scaling agentic commerce. The goal is to ensure payment credentials function consistently across borders, preventing fragmentation from eroding consumer trust. As the standards competition between Visa and Mastercard progresses, ensuring interoperability is becoming increasingly important.

A concrete example is the partnership between Visa and China UnionPay. This arrangement enables mainland Chinese consumers to move funds across borders while maintaining connectivity with domestic infrastructure. Karpin described this as "collaboration where each network complements capabilities that the other cannot replicate alone."

Impact on E-Commerce Businesses and Practical Applications

Visa's intelligent commerce vision calls for three specific actions from e-commerce businesses.

First, prepare for Trusted Agent Protocol integration. As orders from AI agents are expected to surge, merchants need to implement authentication infrastructure to identify legitimate agents and distinguish them from bots. According to Visa, the solution is designed for low-code integration without major changes to existing infrastructure. The joint pilot with DBS Bank has already completed live transactions, demonstrating the feasibility of implementation.

Second, prepare for Flex Credential support. As consumers begin delegating payment method optimization to AI agents, merchants will need the flexibility to accept payments from diverse funding sources including credit, debit, BNPL, and rewards points.

Third, optimize product information for AI agents. Whether a merchant can provide accurate and structured data when AI evaluates and compares products will determine whether they become a merchant that agents "choose."

Over 30 partners are already developing in the VIC (Visa Intelligent Commerce) sandbox, with pilots expected to accelerate across Asia Pacific in the first half of 2026.

Summary

Karpin stated: "I'm confident that trusted agents will scale. Agents will process payments at very significant scale. Asia Pacific will be at the forefront on many metrics over the next months and years."

The technical foundations -- mobile infrastructure, tokenization, interoperability frameworks, and Flex Credential -- are already in place. The remaining variable is "trust," which Karpin views not as a technical challenge but as "a matter of building a track record." As Visa's proof-of-concept experiments with over 100 partners continue, 2026 is likely to be a turning point where AI agent payments transition from "experimentation" to "practical use." For e-commerce businesses, starting preparations now will translate into competitive advantage.