Visa and Mastercard want to give artificial intelligence bots more control of Australians’ bank cards, in a technological advancement they say could “revolutionize” shopping.
The world’s leading digital payment companies separately announced plans late last month to develop AI technology to streamline modern retail and allow autonomous agents to spend shoppers’ money for them.
The companies say AI agents could become as commonplace as contactless payment technologies, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and are hopeful their corporate partners in Australia will embrace them in coming months.
So, how could AI play more of a role in how we spend our money? And are there risks of it going wrong? Here is what we have been told.
What are AI agents and how do they work?
Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestall announced the company’s “Intelligent Commerce” platform on April 30, saying it will allow shoppers to “have AI agents browse, select, purchase and manage on their behalf”.
“AI agents can find, shop and buy for consumers based on their pre-selected preferences,” he said in a statement.
“Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest.”
The platform is being developed by Visa in partnership with other major global tech companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity and Samsung.
The company says shoppers will be able to set tasks for the AI agent, such as finding a specific item, researching a holiday itinerary, or filling out a weekly grocery list.
Customers can then include an instruction in that task for the AI agent to spend their money for them, to purchase that product or service.
Mastercard’s version of a similar technology, announced on April 29, is called “Agent Pay” and also allows for a consumer to chat with an AI bot to set custom parameters for how they want it to shop on their behalf.
Agent Pay incorporates a bigger focus on secure transactions using “Agentic Tokens”, which apply unique one-time codes to prompts given to the AI so that a person’s secure data stays safe and banks and retailers can correctly identify the spender.
|
Fortress_Lemonade Reputation: 67 See Fortress_Lemonade's booth |
No answers have been posted yet.
Viewed: 30 times
Asked: about 3 hours ago
Latest response: None
Remember these tips:
- Use links to other sources to support your opinions
- Use examples where possible
- Put yourself in the inquirers shoes: what extra info would be helpful?
Should I post a comment or an answer?
You can only post one answer, so make it count. Maybe your reply is more fitting as a comment instead?
Post an answer for:
- Replies that directly and specifically answer the original question
Post a comment for:
- "Thanks," "Me too," "I agree," or "Works for me" types of replies
- When you would like the original poster to provide more details
- When you have more to add to someone else's question or answer
See also our Roundtable FAQ.
Formatting
Community help posts follow certain formatting guidelines, which may impact the look of your post. If you're interested in tweaking the format, instructions are available here.
