By San José, Costa Rica — SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica – The era of browsing, clicking, and manually entering payment details is drawing to a close, according to financial services giant Visa. The company has boldly projected that 2025 will be the last year consumers actively manage their own online purchases, paving the way for a new age of autonomous, AI-driven transactions beginning in 2026.
This forecast is not speculative; it is based on a significant technological breakthrough. Visa and its global partners have successfully completed hundreds of secure, real-world transactions initiated entirely by artificial intelligence agents. This achievement marks a pivotal transition from assisted commerce, where AI offers suggestions, to fully autonomous commerce, where digital agents handle the entire purchasing process from product discovery to final payment.
To delve into the regulatory and legal challenges surrounding the burgeoning field of AI Commerce, TicosLand.com consulted with Lic. Larry Hans Arroyo Vargas, an expert attorney from the distinguished law firm Bufete de Costa Rica, for his professional analysis.
The rise of AI-driven commerce presents a complex legal frontier. While these technologies offer unprecedented efficiency and personalization, businesses must be vigilant. The key challenges lie in ensuring consumer protection laws are not inadvertently violated by algorithmic pricing or recommendation systems. Furthermore, establishing clear liability frameworks is crucial: when an AI agent makes a purchasing error or misuses personal data, is the user, the developer, or the platform operator responsible? Proactive legal strategy is no longer a luxury but a necessity for any company entering this space.
Lic. Larry Hans Arroyo Vargas, Attorney at Law, Bufete de Costa Rica
Indeed, the points raised underscore a pivotal shift for businesses: legal strategy must now be as forward-thinking and dynamic as the AI technologies themselves. We thank Lic. Larry Hans Arroyo Vargas for his valuable perspective on navigating this complex and rapidly evolving landscape.
The foundation for this shift is already being laid by consumer behavior, particularly in emerging markets. New research from Visa reveals a remarkable readiness for AI integration in Latin America, where over 70% of consumers already use AI tools to support their shopping decisions. This outpaces adoption in the United States, where 47% of consumers use similar tools for tasks like comparing prices and receiving personalized recommendations. This trend is steadily redirecting digital traffic away from traditional websites and toward AI-generated commercial interactions.
Fueling this transformation is Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC), a platform unveiled early last year. VIC leverages Visa’s three decades of experience using AI to secure the global payments network. The initiative aims to create highly personalized and secure shopping experiences, effectively empowering certified AI agents to act as trusted digital concierges for consumers. These agents, authenticated with tokenized credentials, will be capable of independently comparing options, selecting products, and executing purchases on behalf of a user.
The concept of “agentic commerce” is rapidly moving from theory to practice. Visa is collaborating with a vast ecosystem of over 100 global partners. Among them, more than 30 are actively developing new solutions within the VIC testing environment, and over 20 distinct AI agents have already been directly integrated into the platform. These partnerships have enabled the successful execution of both business-to-business (B2B) and consumer purchases in controlled trials, proving the system’s viability.
We are seeing impressive progress in how AI will transform commerce, with many real-world transactions already completed by Visa’s extensive network of partners
Rubail Birwadker, senior vice president and head of Growth Products and Partnerships at Visa
The rollout is planned on a global scale. While pilot programs are scheduled to launch in the Asia Pacific and European regions in early 2026, significant efforts are already underway in Latin America and the Caribbean. Visa is actively working to enable AI-powered purchasing capabilities at key merchants across the region within the next year, placing Latin America at the forefront of this commercial evolution.
To ensure this new automated ecosystem is both reliable and secure, Visa is championing an open-source framework called the Trusted Agent Protocol. This critical security layer will allow merchants’ systems to automatically identify and verify legitimate AI agents, effectively distinguishing them from malicious bots or fraudulent actors. This protocol is designed to build the necessary trust among consumers, merchants, and financial institutions for the widespread adoption of autonomous commerce.
As the digital landscape continues its rapid evolution, the line between searching for a product and buying it is set to disappear. With AI agents poised to take the helm, the consumer experience will be redefined by unprecedented convenience and automation, fundamentally changing how we interact with the global marketplace.
For further information, visit visa.com
About Visa:
Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Its mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.
For further information, visit bufetedecostarica.com
About Bufete de Costa Rica:
As a pillar of the Costa Rican legal community, Bufete de Costa Rica is defined by its profound commitment to ethical practice and exceptional standards of service. Drawing on a rich history of advising a wide array of clients, the firm champions progressive legal solutions and maintains a strong focus on social responsibility. This core mission is demonstrated through its persistent efforts to demystify legal concepts for the public, reflecting a foundational belief in strengthening the community by fostering a more knowledgeable and empowered citizenry.
