Agentic shopping is taking over the headlines, but are consumers really ready to hand over their credit cards to a bot? Visa recently sponsored a report that measures consumers’ attitudes toward agentic commerce.

The research was conducted by The Harris Poll in May of 2026 and surveyed 2,065 US adults to provide insight into how consumers are navigating the next evolution of AI shopping and payments. The report found that 72% of respondents have used an AI assistant, 23% trust generative AI to handle payments on their behalf, and 61% would trust Visa to handle agentic transactions.

The findings from The Harris Poll’s research reveal four key takeaways for the future of agentic commerce:

Visa’s research suggests that consumers distinguish between the technology that helps them shop and the payment providers they trust to facilitate transactions. So while they may use an AI agent to recommend a new pair of shoes, compare prices, and select a retailer, when it comes time to pay, many still prefer the protections and peace of mind offered when using a familiar, established payment provider.

The implication: Banks and payment networks may not need to own the entire AI shopping experience to remain relevant. Their competitive advantage could depend on providing trusted payment infrastructure that sits behind the shopping experience.

As it is still a new concept, much of the conversation around agentic commerce has focused on the enabling technology, such as APIs, tokenization, agent authentication, and payment execution. And for good reason: figuring out the logistics of the payment that leverages a constantly evolving field of technology with multiple players is complicated.

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