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Visa Inc. early Thursday announced enhancements to its Visa Intelligent Commerce platform, an artificial intelligence-based shopping service that enables AI agents to shop and make purchases for consumers.
The new enhancements include availability of Visa’s Model Context Protocol (MCP) server to software developers and the launch of the Acceptance Agent Toolkit. Developers can now connect to application programming interfaces through the MCP server to create new apps and agentic commerce experiences for the Intelligent Commerce platform without the need to hand‑code each API call or manage complex authentication flows, Visa says.
The Acceptance Agent Toolkit offers prebuilt workflows for acceptance invoicing and Pay by Link with plain‑language prompts, which eliminates the need for coding, according to Visa.
The MCP Server and Visa Acceptance Agent Toolkit “expand Visa Intelligent Commerce so clients, partners, and consumers can access new agentic commerce experiences faster,” a Visa spokesperson says by email. “Together they provide a ready-made integration layer and no-code workflows that move teams from idea to functional prototypes in hours instead of days or weeks.”
Enabling this kind of access to Visa’s tech stack is “an important step” in helping AI developers, partners and clients work with Visa to build agentic commerce experiences on top of its payments technology, Visa says.
Visa launched its Intelligent Commerce platform earlier this year to provide the infrastructure and tools AI developers need to build what are known as agentic experiences, which allow consumers to achieve their shopping goals through an AI agent. The use of AI agents in commerce is expected to streamline common transaction-driven tasks, such as ordering groceries online. They can also enable sophisticated search and decision-making, such as making restaurant reservations or buying concert show tickets, Visa adds.
“Artificial intelligence, generative AI, large language models and machine learning are transforming our world, and we believe these technologies can radically transform commerce, too,” the Visa spokesperson says.
Benefits for merchants and acquirers from Visa’s enhancements include faster payments, fewer disputes, and smooth, agent‑driven transactions that boost sales and build loyalty, according to Visa. In addition to enabling developers to build apps faster, the enhancements will allow developers to securely test commerce actions, Visa says.
Enabling these enhancements for merchants and developers means consumers, can access agentic commerce experiences that are “safe, easy-to-use, tailored shopping experiences with permission settings, spending limits, and the power to revoke access any time,” says the Visa spokesperson.
