Visa study finds AI shopping agents succeed only about 57% of the time

Visa reported that 22 AI shopping agents completed purchases of a TV, a laptop and a hair appliance successfully only about 57% of the time across 15 attempts each, with agents built on the most advanced models — including Google's Gemini (Aragon 4 version) and Meta's Making (Wonder version) — scoring highest. Visa's separate agentic-commerce research found 54% of US adults had used AI tools for shopping tasks in 2026, up from 47% the year before, while only about 23% said they would trust AI agents to handle the actual transaction. Visa is promoting its Intelligent Commerce platform and Trusted Agent Protocol, developed with partners including Cloudflare and Microsoft, to let merchants and payment networks verify that an AI agent is legitimate and acting for a real customer.

Visa study finds AI shopping agents succeed only about 57% of the time visa cards A test of 22 AI agents buying a TV, a laptop and a hair appliance shows autonomous shopping still has a long way to go AI agents are supposed to be the future of shopping. Visa https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/visa/ just ran the numbers, and the future is batting a little better than a coin flip. In what it describes as a first-of-its-kind study, the payments giant had 22 different AI agents try to buy three everyday products. The overall success rate came in at around 57% . What Visa actually tested The setup was simple on purpose. Each agent was told to purchase a TV, a laptop and a hair appliance. Every one of the 22 agents ran 15 separate shopping attempts. Visa has published the outcomes on a new website that breaks down how each agent performed across its runs. Results varied widely. Some agents did significantly better than others, which suggests the 57% average hides a real gap between the leaders and the stragglers. The pattern at the top was not much of a surprise. Agents running on the most advanced AI models posted the strongest results. AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing. Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy. The Aragon 4 version of Google https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/alphabet/ ’s Gemini and the Wonder version of Meta https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/meta/ ’s Making agent earned the highest scores in the study. The trust gap behind the numbers According to Visa’s broader research into what it calls “agentic commerce,” 54% of US adults said in 2026 that they had used AI tools for shopping tasks. That figure was 47% the year before. Visa’s research found that 61% of consumers expressed confidence in AI for price comparison. Another 59% felt good about using it to check whether a product is in stock. Payments are a different story. Only about 23% said they would trust AI agents to handle the actual transaction. Why Visa cares so much Visa is not running these tests out of academic curiosity. The company has a direct stake in how agent-driven purchases get built and secured. It has been promoting its Intelligent Commerce platform alongside the Trusted Agent Protocol. Both are designed to address the authentication and fraud questions that come up when software, not a person, is clicking “buy.” Visa has worked with partners including Cloudflare and Microsoft https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/microsoft/ on the Trusted Agent Protocol. The goal is to give merchants and payment networks a way to verify that an AI agent is legitimate and acting on a real customer’s behalf. Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/ .