Breaking: @Visa and @Mastercard are giving AI Agents access to credit cards. TLDR: i) Visa unveiled "Visa Intelligent Commerce" at its Global Product Drop, opening its payment network to AI agent developers ii) Mastercard is releasing ‘Agent Pay’ to embed payments into AI conversations. iii) AI agents will soon browse, buy, and manage purchases on users’ behalf—Visa aims to make these transactions secure, trusted, and seamless iv) Working with OpenAI, Anthropic, IBM, Microsoft, Stripe, and more to scale AI commerce securely. Key Features: i) AI-Ready Cards: Tokenized digital credentials authorize agents to transact safely on behalf of users. ii) AI-Powered Personalization: Consumers can share Visa spend data (with consent) to improve agent performance and recommendations. iii) Secure AI Payments: Users set spend limits; Visa enforces transaction controls and dispute handling in real-time. Implications: The traditional finance system has historically had significant levels of friction for agents to become fully autonomous, but this demonstrates flexibility to adapt. We could see Agent making bookings and orders sooner than you think! I still think that this will be fairly limited compared to what's possible with permissionless financial systems / Crypto rails. Visa’s move is permissioned – agents require approval and operate within a centralized framework. Crypto rails enable composability – agents can interact across protocols freely, executing DeFi, NFT, DAO actions permissionlessly. Visa simplifies UX, crypto maximizes sovereignty – one prioritizes onboarding, the other autonomy. Bullish for Agents and pushing what's possible using AI and the mass market!