NewsAgents Take

Agentic commerce is converging on a single constraint: trust at machine speed. This is the month where “agents shopping” stopped being a novelty and started being framed as an ecosystem problem - identity, intent, fraud containment, and dispute accountability - with Visa leaning into the role of trust layer, not just payments rail. If payments become “invisible,” merchant control doesn’t disappear - it moves upstream into agent permissions, policy, and verification.

1) Visa predicts agentic commerce goes mainstream in 2026

What it says: Visa is positioning agent-initiated transactions as moving from pilots to meaningful volume in 2026, and is signalling an expanding ecosystem of partners and integrations.
Why it matters: This is a directional statement: schemes want to be the credential and trust layer for agentic checkout. If the timeline is even roughly right, merchants should treat “agent readiness” like they treated mobile readiness - discovery, checkout orchestration, fraud controls, and post-purchase flows all need a deliberate agent pathway.

Link: https://p.feedblitz.com/r3.asp?l=523087192&f=1019807&c=26061416&u=57443590

2) Akamai and Visa partner on fraud prevention for agentic commerce

What it says: The partnership frames agentic commerce as a distinct threat surface and focuses on combining network and edge signals to reduce fraud risk in agent-led journeys.
Why it matters: Agentic commerce only scales if the ecosystem can reliably distinguish legitimate agent activity from automation abuse, at speed. Expect more “prove the agent, prove the intent” patterns - and more merchants being judged on how well they manage this traffic, not whether they invited it.

Direct link: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2025/12/17/akamai-visa-partner-fraud-prevention-agentic-commerce/

3) Agentic commerce tests whether payments can stay “invisible”

What it says: The thesis is delegated purchasing where the agent handles selection and completion, while payments fade into the background of the experience.
Why it matters: “Invisible payments” sounds simple until you model the knock-on effects: less merchant brand presence at checkout, different conversion dynamics, new failure modes (agent error, preference drift), and heavier requirements for transparency after purchase (receipts, returns, disputes). Merchants that win will define agent rules of engagement rather than just accepting agent traffic.

Direct link: https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2025/agentic-commerce-tests-whether-payments-can-stay-invisible/