Artificial intelligence (AI) agents are beginning to transform the way people shop online — and now Visa and Mastercard are rolling out new tools to help secure those transactions from end to end.
This week, both payments giants introduced separate frameworks aimed at supporting the rise of agentic commerce. The goal, according to the companies, is to give merchants a way to verify trusted AI agents and confirm shopper intent, as well as process payments with less friction.
Underpinning both frameworks is Cloudflare’s Web Bot Auth technology, developed in collaboration with Microsoft, Shopify, Checkout.com, Worldpay, Adyen and others. Cloudflare said it designed the technology to power agentic commerce at scale, allowing AI agents to transact across “millions of merchants globally.” American Express also plans to adopt the standard as part of its own agentic commerce strategy.
“Securing the future of commerce is a shared responsibility, especially as AI agents begin to act on behalf of consumers,” said Stephanie Cohen, Cloudflare’s chief strategy officer, in a statement. “Our work with Visa on the Trusted Agent Protocol is a vital step in building the necessary guardrails for this new ecosystem.”
Why Visa and Mastercard launched AI payments solutions
Visa and Mastercard’s moves reflect growing momentum — and growing concerns — around AI-led shopping.
In Visa’s announcement, it cited Adobe Insights data showing the 2024 holiday season marked a turning point, with generative AI traffic to U.S. retail sites increasing 1,300% year over year between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31. On Cyber Monday alone, traffic spiked 1,950%.
By July 2025, Adobe said generative AI-driven visits had jumped 4,700% year over year, based on click-throughs that led to purchases. Analysts expect that growth to accelerate this holiday season, as AI agents not only search for and recommend products but also complete purchases, sometimes without the shopper present at the time.
As a result, retailers and payment networks are under growing pressure to adapt their trust and verification systems to fit this new, agent-led model.
“With the proliferation of agentic AI, merchants are increasingly confronted with several critical dilemmas,” wrote Pablo Fourez, Mastercard’s chief digital officer, in a corporate blog post, “How can they distinguish between legitimate AI agents and malicious bots? How do they know the consumer authorized the agent to make the purchase? How can they know if the agent has carried out the consumer’s instructions correctly?”
Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol
Visa’s response is the Trusted Agent Protocol. The company designed the system to help merchants identify verified AI agents and securely process their transactions.
The protocol is already live on Visa’s Developer Center and GitHub. Partners backing the protocol include Microsoft, Nuvei, Shopify, Stripe and Worldpay.
According to Visa, the protocol helps authorized agents pass payment credentials and other data to merchants. This reduces friction at checkout while helping prevent legitimate agents from being mistaken for bots.
Broken down further, Visa said the framework centers on three capabilities. Those include signaling agent intent, recognizing the consumer behind the agent and transmitting payment credentials.
The goal, it says, is to give merchants clarity without requiring them to overhaul their systems.
“For the past year, we’ve worked closely with sellers, issuers and partners to make sure agent-initiated transactions are as seamless and secure as any payment today,” said Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, in a statement. “Our new agent protocol is focused on creating no-code functionality for merchants to securely identify agents with an intent to buy and provide a better payments and personalized experience for its known users.”
Mastercard framework focuses on scale
Mastercard announced its Agent Pay Merchant Acceptance Framework on the same day.
The company says the framework is built to help merchants engage AI agents “at scale and with ease” throughout the entire transaction process.
Like Visa’s system, Mastercard’s approach is no-code and designed for easy integration. The company emphasized that its framework registers and authenticates agents before any transaction. It views that approach as allowing merchants to more confidently recognize and interact with trusted AI systems.
“As AI agents become more capable and autonomous, the need for trust, transparency and interoperability becomes paramount,” Fourez stated. “Mastercard Agent Pay and our acceptance framework are a bold step toward a future where merchants and consumers can engage with AI agents confidently and securely.”
Building an ecosystem — not a competition
Both companies claim their protocols are meant to support —and not compete with — other emerging standards in agentic commerce.
Visa said it’s aligning its Trusted Agent Protocol with OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol, along with Coinbase’s x402 standard.
Mastercard, for its part, said it’s “partnering with key industry players to ensure a consistent and unified approach to agentic commerce, which is scalable, secure and widely adopted.”
The company expects merchants will gradually move from no-code setups to richer integrations — using protocols like MCP, A2A, or ACP. It said the framework is built to support that shift.
OpenAI and Google continue expanding their reach
Visa and Mastercard’s moves come as other players expand their agentic commerce efforts.
In September, OpenAI launched Instant Checkout for Etsy sellers via its Agentic Commerce Protocol, which it co-developed with Stripe. Meanwhile, Shopify and Salesforce are also preparing integrations with OpenAI’s framework — the latter through its Agentforce platform.
In addition, Google launched its Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) around the same time. The open standard allows AI agents to complete transactions securely, Google said, even without direct shopper involvement.
Backers of AP2 include Mastercard, PayPal, American Express, Coinbase, Salesforce, Shopify, Cloudflare and Etsy.
Klarna later joined AP2, saying its role “reflects its evolution from payments provider to core infrastructure contributor for the next generation of commerce.”
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