Alchemy and Visa launch AgentCard: AI agents get their own payment tools
The market for autonomous AI agents is taking another step toward full-fledged economic integration. The Alchemy platform, together with payment giant Visa, has introduced the AgentCard service — a solution that allows artificial intelligence to make online purchases without direct human involvement.
AgentCard operates on the Visa Intelligent Commerce infrastructure. Each AI agent is provided with a full set of identification and payment data: a virtual Visa card, an email address, a phone number, and a cryptocurrency wallet. Developers need just one API request to configure the agent for paying for goods and services — the process takes less than a minute.
Such agents, running on models from OpenAI or Anthropic, will be able to independently book airline tickets, order groceries, renew subscriptions, and perform other routine operations. The user sets parameters and limits, while the agent handles the ordering and payment process.
The system provides flexible restrictions: limits on total spending, store categories, and customizable budgets. By default, payments go through Visa tokens, preserving bank bonuses and credit lines. If the merchant accepts cryptocurrencies, the service can automatically switch to a digital wallet.
"Every technological shift has created new economic participants. AI agents are the next stage, and they need access to the global economy," said Alchemy CEO Nikhil Viswanathan.
Visa, for its part, guarantees the security and scalability of transactions. The AgentCard protocol independently selects the optimal payment method depending on the merchant's capabilities.
This is not the first step in this direction. Previously, MetaMask announced a wallet for the era of autonomous AI, and Coinbase launched a service connecting agents to user accounts for trading and payments within set limits.
My analysis: AgentCard from Alchemy and Visa is perhaps the most mature product in this niche to date. Integration with traditional payment infrastructure removes the main barrier for AI agents: the lack of a "digital identity" for conducting transactions. In the next 12-18 months, we will see explosive growth in the number of autonomous agents managing finances on behalf of users — and this will change not only the crypto industry but the entire model of consumer behavior.