Businesses ready to embrace AI-to-AI commerce, consumers more wary - Visa survey

Visa claims that the next phase of commerce, which it calls Business-to-AI (B2AI), where AI agents act as active participants in commercial decision-making and execution, has already arrived.

“Commerce is moving from market-to-human to market-to-machine,” says Frank Cooper, CMO, Visa. “B2AI describes what happens next as AI agents begin evaluating, negotiating and transacting on behalf of people. In that world, as always, trust becomes the critical infrastructure. If we don’t build it into machine-mediated commerce, adoption stalls.”

The payments giant, which has enthusiastically tried to position itself at the centre of a potentially hugely profitable agentic commerce era, has surveyed around 2000 Americans and more than 500 businesses to gauge public sentiment on the subject.

Businesses appear to be enthusiastic, with 53% willing to permit AI agents to negotiate directly with other AI agents, 71% willing to optimise products, offers and experiences specifically for AI agents, and 77% already using or piloting AI in their operations. Meanwhile, 88% are willing to provide pricing or inventory data to enterprise AI systems and 55% are already familiar with the concept of B2AI commerce.

Consumers also show some interest in agentic commerce, albeit with guardrails. Nearly 60% are comfortable with AI comparing prices, 55% are comfortable with AI applying discounts, and 38% are comfortable with AI completing a purchase.

Nearly 40% have already made a purchase they normally would not have considered as a result of using an AI agent or tool. But, only 27% are comfortable allowing AI to spend money autonomously without limits and 60% would not allow AI to spend any amount without approval.

Trust increases when financial institutions are involved: 36% trust bank-backed AI systems, while 35% trust payment network-enabled AI but only 28% trust independent AI agents.

The research also shows a generational divide, with nearly half of Gen Z saying they trust payment network-enabled AI systems, compared to only 20% of Boomers. Among Gen Z and Millennials using AI shopping assistants, nearly half report making purchases they wouldn’t otherwise have considered due to AI recommendations.

“The message is unmistakable: people are open to AI acting for them, not instead of them,” says Cooper. “Our findings show that trust is the adoption switch for agentic commerce. Consumers are willing to let AI act on their behalf, but only when they retain visibility, control and the ability to intervene.”