In a new Visa Business to AI (B2AI) Report, developed with Morning Consult, Visa defines the next era of commerce as a world where AI agents don’t just assist shopping, they evaluate options, negotiate, and complete transactions on behalf of people and businesses. Nearly 40% of Americans surveyed have already made a purchase they normally would not have considered because an AI agent or tool recommended it, an early sign that algorithms are actively shaping demand rather than just filtering it.
“Commerce is moving from market-to-human to market-to-machine,” said Frank Cooper III, Chief Marketing Officer at Visa. “B2AI describes what happens next as AI agents begin evaluating, negotiating and transacting on behalf of people. In that world, as always, trust becomes the critical infrastructure. If we don’t build it into machine-mediated commerce, adoption stalls.” In this machine mediated environment, he stressed that trust is critical infrastructure, if consumers and businesses cannot trust AI to AI commerce, adoption will stall.
Businesses are Ready to Let AI Negotiate
A majority of U.S. business decision makers are already planning for AI led buying and selling. Among surveyed leaders: 53% would allow AI agents to negotiate prices or terms directly with other AI agents, 88% are willing to provide pricing or inventory data to enterprise AI systems and 55% are already familiar with the concept of B2AI commerce.
In practice, that means procurement bots and sales agents could soon hash out discounts, delivery windows and service levels in real time, within guardrails set by humans. Visa notes that 77% of businesses are already using or piloting AI somewhere in their operations, signaling that the technical and cultural groundwork for AI to AI transactions is quickly being laid.
Consumers Want Control, Transparency, and Overrides
Openness comes with conditions. The B2AI survey found many shoppers are comfortable using AI tools for tasks like product discovery and price comparison, but they insist on visibility into what the agent is doing and the ability to override its choices. Trust levels climb when AI agents are linked to established financial institutions such as Visa, rather than unknown or standalone apps.
That means the winning commerce experiences will be those where AI agents act as transparent proxies, following clear rules around budget, merchants and categories, while still allowing the human to confirm or course correct. Designing for explainability and easy opt outs will be as important as recommendation accuracy.
Visa’s Role in Building Rails for AI Commerce
Visa is extending its existing network, standards and fraud prevention capabilities into what it calls Intelligent Commerce, designed specifically for agent initiated payments. Visa and partners had already completed hundreds of secure agent initiated transactions, and the company predicted that millions of consumers would use AI agents to complete purchases by the 2026 holiday season.
With 4.8 billion Visa credentials in the market and more than 150 million merchant locations globally, the company is positioning itself as the trusted bridge between human shoppers, their AI agents, and merchants’ systems. Pilot programs are expanding across Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East, where Visa is working with partners like Aldar in the United Arab Emirates to let customers’ AI agents handle recurring payments such as real estate service charges.
What this Means for Retailers and Brands
For commerce players, Visa’s message is that B2AI readiness is the next competitive moat. More than 70% of businesses surveyed say they are willing to optimize products, offers and experiences specifically for AI agents, effectively treating them as a new class of customer that needs structured data, clear pricing logic and machine readable incentives.
Brands that adapt fastest, by exposing accurate inventory, rich product data and AI friendly pricing frameworks, will be more likely to surface in agent driven comparisons and negotiations. Those that lag risk becoming invisible in a world where AI agents do the browsing, shortlisting and haggling long before a human ever sees a product page.
