Visa Study: Trust in Established Payment Brands Key for Agentic Commerce

A new Visa study reveals that while 72% of US consumers have used an AI assistant, only 23% trust generative AI to independently handle payments. However, trust increases significantly when established payment brands are involved, with 61% willing to entrust Visa with agentic transactions, rising to 68% among 18-34 year-olds and 71% among frequent AI users. The study, conducted by Harris Poll in late May 2026 with 2,065 US consumers, highlights a distinction between trust in AI for product search and the need for reliable payment infrastructure. Visa is developing 'Visa Intelligent Commerce' to build technologies and standards for AI-agent-initiated transactions, focusing on identity verification, authentication, and consumer controls. The findings suggest that agentic commerce is still in its early stages, with a significant acceptance gap between using AI assistants and fully autonomous purchases.