Agentic Commerce – The shopping revolution

At Balkan eCommerce Summit 2026, Petya Rusinova from Visa explored how AI, digital identity, intelligent payments, and connected ecosystems are transforming the future of commerce.

The presentation focused on the concept of “Agentic Commerce” – a future where AI agents not only help consumers search and discover products, but actively participate in decision-making and purchasing on their behalf.

The key message was that payments are no longer simply the final transaction step in the customer journey. They are becoming intelligent, embedded, invisible, and deeply integrated into the entire shopping experience.

Commerce Is Becoming Intelligent and Connected

Petya described how consumer behavior, technology, and business expectations are converging faster than ever before.

She explained that modern commerce is no longer driven by a single user interacting with a single website. Instead, shopping now involves multiple interconnected elements:

digital identities
AI assistants
mobile devices
wearables
smart interfaces
payment systems
family and social influence
online merchants and ecosystems

Consumers are no longer shopping alone. AI tools increasingly participate in:

search
recommendations
decision-making
trip planning
product discovery
checkout flows

This creates a new commerce model where AI becomes an active shopping participant.

AI-Powered Shopping Is Already Happening

The presentation highlighted that AI shopping adoption is already accelerating rapidly.

Key trends shared during the session included:

38% of users already use generative AI while shopping
traffic from AI platforms to retail sites has increased dramatically
eCommerce spending is expected to grow significantly faster than overall consumer spending in the next five years

According to Visa, these changes are creating the conditions for a major shift toward AI-powered commerce experiences.

The Era of Convergence

A central theme in the keynote was “convergence.”

Petya explained that the future of commerce will emerge through the merging of technologies and systems that previously operated separately.

She outlined three major forms of convergence shaping the future of payments and shopping:

Identity Convergence

Digital identity becomes central to the shopping experience.

Instead of verifying users only at checkout, identity becomes integrated from the very beginning of the customer journey.

Verified identity data may include:

government-issued IDs
addresses
contact information
payment credentials
behavioral preferences

This allows merchants and platforms to personalize experiences earlier and more securely.

Choice Convergence

Consumers will increasingly have access to multiple payment rails and funding options simultaneously.

Rather than manually choosing payment methods every time, intelligent systems will automatically select the most suitable option based on context, preferences, and convenience.

Payments become more flexible and largely invisible in the background.

Experience Convergence

The distinction between online and offline commerce continues to disappear.

Digital experiences will increasingly deliver the convenience of online shopping while preserving the quality and trust of physical retail interactions.

Commerce becomes seamless across devices, channels, and environments.

Digital Identity Moves from Checkout to Check-In

Visa presented digital identity as one of the core building blocks of future commerce.

Petya explained that digital identity enables merchants and platforms to securely recognize consumers early in the shopping journey.

Visa’s ecosystem includes:

Digital Identity Network
Data & ID Tokens
Visa Payment Passkeys

These systems help:

authenticate users securely
reduce friction in transactions
eliminate passwords and redirects
enable biometric authentication
support personalized recommendations
increase transaction trust

The goal is to create secure, frictionless shopping experiences while improving both convenience and fraud protection.

AI Agents Need Commerce Infrastructure

One of the biggest challenges discussed in the presentation was that AI agents today are strong at:

conversation
search
recommendations
planning

but still weak when it comes to transactions and trust.

Key concerns across the ecosystem include:

Can consumers trust AI agents with payments?
Can financial institutions verify the legitimacy of the AI agent?
Can merchants trust the payment process and transaction security?

Petya explained that these are the exact problems Visa Intelligent Commerce is designed to solve.

Visa Intelligent Commerce

Visa introduced Visa Intelligent Commerce as the payment infrastructure layer for AI-driven shopping.

The solution provides APIs built around three key pillars:

AI-Ready Payment Credentials

Tokenized and authenticated payment credentials designed specifically for AI environments.

These help financial institutions verify that AI agents are legitimately acting on behalf of consumers.

AI-Powered Personalization

Visa data and insights enrich AI shopping recommendations and personalization.

This allows AI assistants to deliver more relevant products, travel options, payment methods, and shopping experiences.

Trust and Payment Guarantees

Visa Intelligent Commerce helps merchants validate and trust AI-initiated transactions by providing:

payment signals
transaction instructions
verification frameworks
payment guarantees

This creates the trust layer needed for AI commerce to scale safely.

A Real-World Example of Agentic Commerce

To demonstrate the concept, Petya shared a future shopping scenario involving a customer planning a vacation to Sicily using an AI assistant.

In the example:

the customer authenticates using Visa Payment Passkey
the AI agent recommends a hotel based on viewing history and preferences
transportation suggestions adapt to past behavior and favorite colors
driving license data is securely loaded through digital identity systems
payment options and financing are automatically suggested
flight recommendations optimize convenience based on hotel location
all purchases are aggregated into one intelligent payment flow

The entire experience becomes:

personalized
predictive
secure
frictionless
AI-assisted

without requiring the customer to manually manage every step.

The Future of Commerce Is Already Being Built

Petya emphasized that Agentic Commerce is no longer a futuristic concept.

Visa already has:

live partnerships with major AI technology companies
active pilots in Central and Eastern Europe
developer APIs available through Visa Developer Center
ongoing implementations with AI agents and commerce platforms

The company is actively building the infrastructure for intelligent payments and AI-driven commerce ecosystems.

Key Takeaways from the Session

The presentation outlined several major shifts that will shape the future of eCommerce:

payments are becoming embedded, intelligent, and invisible
AI agents will increasingly participate in shopping journeys
digital identity will move to the center of commerce experiences
trust and authentication become critical in AI commerce
shopping journeys will become highly personalized and predictive
payment choice and flexibility will expand significantly
online and offline commerce experiences will continue converging
AI-powered shopping requires entirely new payment infrastructure

The core message of the session was that commerce is entering a new era where AI, identity, and payments operate together as one connected ecosystem.

And according to Visa, that transformation has already started.