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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Visa Intelligent Commerce opens Visa’s payment network to developers and engineers.
- These individuals can then build agentic AI shopping experiences using Visa’s network.
- Now, Visa Intelligent Commerce offers Model Context Protocol (MCP) support.
AI agents can optimize how people do everyday tasks in the digital world, including shopping. In May, Visa unveiled Visa Intelligent Commerce, which allows developers and engineers to use the firm’s payment network to create agentic AI shopping experiences. The initiative has now received another update to expand its reach.
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On Thursday, Visa unveiled the Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server for Visa Intelligent Commerce. Developers can connect their projects to Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs through the MCP Server and a new Visa Acceptance Agent Toolkit.
In short, the two approaches combined should make it easier for developers to build agentic e-commerce experiences that leverage Visa’s network (a win for consumers who’ll be able to access these features, too).
MCP Server perks
Since its introduction last year, MCP has become widely regarded as an open standard for seamlessly and securely connecting AI assistants and agents to data systems.
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When applied to Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs, this “ready-made integration layer,” as Visa described it, allows developers to access Visa’s capabilities while keeping security at the forefront.
Visa said this integration can help developers move from idea to prototype in hours rather than days or weeks. While that claim isn’t verifiable, building new agentic experiences using Visa’s network should likely be easier, which should mean more helpful experiences for users. Easier checkout experiences fielded by agentic AI are also a win for any e-commerce retailer.
While the MCP Server, now open in pilot, starts with Visa Intelligent Commerce APIs, the company said that it will eventually extend across Visa’s broader API portfolio.
Visa Acceptance Agent Toolkit
The Visa Acceptance Agent Toolkit, now available in pilot, is built on top of the MCP Server to help developers work with AI agents without an extensive coding background, but rather just using natural language. The blog post from Visa said the Toolkit includes pre-built workflows for commerce tasks, conversational prompts, and integrations with chat interfaces, tools, and more.
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Visa offers real-world examples of the process in action, including one in which an AI agent responds to a request, “Create an invoice for $100 for John Doe, due Friday,” by using the Toolkit to call the Invoice API and return an appropriate payment link. In another example, a business analyst asks the AI agent to provide a revenue summary for a particular state, and the AI does so by pulling transaction data from reports that it’s allowed to access.
The company said it is also exploring new B2B and B2C use cases that encourage other ways for developers to tap into Visa’s offerings to build new agentic commerce experiences. This goal aligns with an industry-wide effort to use AI in e-commerce to serve shoppers and boost sales.
For example, OpenAI and Google have unveiled AI shopping features in their chatbots that use AI to help connect people to what they are looking for more seamlessly. Retailers, such as eBay and Amazon, have also tried to incorporate technology to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
A recent Adobe study showed that there may be merit to these efforts, with 39% of the 5,000 respondents having used generative AI for online shopping, including tasks such as conducting research, receiving product recommendations, seeking deals, and getting present ideas.