Visa conducted a study evaluating the performance of 22 AI shopping agents tasked with purchasing a television, a laptop, and a hair appliance. Each agent performed 15 separate shopping attempts, resulting in an overall success rate of approximately 57%. The company noted significant performance variations, with models like Google Gemini Aragon 4 and Meta Making Wonder achieving the highest scores.
The research also highlighted consumer behavior trends regarding AI in retail. In 2026, 54% of US adults reported using AI tools for shopping, compared to 47% in the previous year. While 61% of consumers trust AI for price comparisons and 59% for checking product availability, only 23% are willing to trust AI agents with completing financial transactions.
Visa is developing infrastructure to support secure automated commerce, specifically through its Intelligent Commerce platform and the Trusted Agent Protocol. The company is collaborating with partners such as Microsoft and Cloudflare on this protocol. The initiative aims to provide merchants and payment networks with methods to verify the legitimacy of AI agents acting on behalf of customers.
