Payment infrastructure is without a doubt one of the most crucial and complex elements of retailing, and that complexity is only ramping up as AI agents enter the mix. For retailers this might be headache-inducing, but for Rob Cameron, Global Head of Acceptance Solutions at Visa, it’s invigorating.
“It’s a super-exciting time in commerce for a payments nerd like myself,” he said on this week’s episode of the Retail Remix podcast. “I mean, it’s been interesting the last little while, but it used to be just about increasing consumer expectations. From Gen Z up, we grew up with video games where payments happen in an instant; that’s our expectation. Now, though, we have to manage agents.
“If you look at consumer behavior, there was a 4,700% increase over the last 12 months in consumers accessing ecommerce sites after using one of the AI platforms like a ChatGPT or Perplexity,” he added. “Right now we’re being led to the sites, but we’re ultimately still transacting on the ecommerce sites. I think the exciting thing that’s going to happen is, pretty soon, with the right prompting, we’re going to be able to actually tell that agent to go buy something for us, and they’re going to buy it.”
Exciting, yes, but also somewhat intimidating, so in this episode Cameron breaks down (in plain English) what merchants need to be aware of as this shift takes place. He discusses:
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- How the emergence of agentic commerce will change how payments are processed and protected;
- Why consumer confidence will determine the pace of AI-driven transactions;
- What retailers should do now to prepare their websites and systems for shopping that takes place wholly on AI platforms;
- Managing fraud and data privacy in these agentic transactions; and
- How Visa’s agentic toolkit is empowering brands to experiment with natural language-driven payment experiences.
“What we want to drive for is consumer trust and security, and we want it to be open,” said Cameron. “Ultimately, we want a world where I can securely send my properly authorized agent out to make a purchase on my behalf, and they should be able to purchase it from any website anywhere I tell it, within the bounds of that.”
Listen to the episode here or anywhere you get your podcasts to find out how to get there.
