Visa tells AI to go shopping — with your credit card. Do you have any choice?

What a wonderful time to live. Visa has announced it wants to give artificial intelligence agents the keys to your wallet so they can buy things for you on their own — literally. This is a move that would sound like it was taken from a movie. Black MirrorThe credit card giant says that it is letting robots run wild with your money. Yes, really. Ask them what they are doing and if you have any choice.

The financial giant revealed this week that it has been cooking up a sci fi scheme called “Visa Intelligent Commerce” — where your new AI personal shopper doesn’t just recommend a handbag or compare hotel prices… it buys them. By itself. With your card…

Jack Forestell – Visa’s Chief Strategy and Product Officer – boasted in a recent press release that “soon, people will be able to browse, choose, purchase, and manage products on their behalf.” Visa is setting the standard for new commerce. Siri is about spend your money.

From tap to trap: Visa gives AI the spending reins

For six months, Visa has been quietly working behind the scenes with tech’s most powerful players — including OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, Mistral, Samsung, and even IBM — to supercharge AI agents with the power to buy products without us. Also, they’re partnering with Stripe, an online payment giant.

What is the end goal? Autonomous agents that can buy your weekly shop, book your holidays, or nab that birthday jumper for Aunty Simmy — all without you lifting a finger.

Don’t worry about credit card numbers. These futuristic AI-ready cards will use “tokenised digital credentials,” Visa says, which are supposedly safer than the old plastic — and impossible to memorise. Handy.

Trust me, I’m a robot… with your bank details

Visa says you will be in control. Sort of. Visa assures, “Only consumers can instruct agents on how to use a payment credential and when.”

These AI agents will have access to your spending history — what you bought, when you bought it, and how often you panic-purchase after midnight. AI can recommend products, and even encourage you to purchase certain items, based on AI’s assessment of what is best for you. Customers around the world are thrilled.

Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s Chief Executive Officer, told the Associated Press.

“When we generate a recommendation — say you’re asking, ‘What are the best laptops?’ — we would know what other transactions you’ve made and the revealed preferences from that.”

What are your preferences? Sound like Minority Report meets MoneySuperMarket.

Mastercard enters the arms race of robo-shoppers

Visa is not the only one infected by this technological madness. Just one day before, Mastercard launched its own AI assistant, “Agent Pay,” featuring some of the same collaborators — OpenAI, IBM, and Microsoft — ready to hoover up your financial habits.

The bots are supposed to “recommend, transact and act” as a personal assistant that never sleeps or forgets how often you have bought Crocs.

Here’s the problem: Current AI agents cannot manage a Tesco without the help of a babysitter. OpenAI’s much-hyped “Operator” assistant is painfully slow. It often grinds to an halt and requires humans to approve purchases, type in passwords and hold its hand.

The card wars have gone Skynet — and Visa’s all-in

Visa claims that by plugging its payment network into these AI brains, it’ll solve what tech firms haven’t been able to — a frictionless, fully autonomous checkout. No more clicking “Confirm Purchase”. Just instruct your AI agent, and poof — the purchase is made. You can choose to accept it or not.

Forestell acknowledged that AI platforms cannot solve the payment problem by themselves. “That’s the reason we started working together.” Do we need to be elated or frightened?

Bottom line: is this financial suicide, or genius?

You’re right if it sounds suspicious. You’re asked to hand the keys to the bank account over to an algorithm that is prone to errors and thinks pineapple pie is a great idea. It can’t distinguish between “buy” or “bye bye savings”.

On one hand, a world of futuristic spending is promised. On the contrary? Imagine a dystopia in which your robot PA buys spa candles and swords for you because you searched the term “stress reduction” last week.

Visa’s robo-shopper revolution is coming — but whether it’s a godsend or a gold-plated nightmare is still very much up for grabs. How are they going to get around the UK and EU privacy laws with this?

You can also The following are some of the ways to get in touch with us. Do you trust a robotic device with your credit cards? Comment below.

More tech news is coming soon for Spanish residents.

Find out more about Europe.