The digital commerce market is making a sharp turn toward autonomy. Animoca Brands, together with payment giant Visa, has launched a pilot project on the Minds marketplace. The essence of the innovation is simple but revolutionary: AI agents can now independently analyze the market, find profitable discounts, and make purchases on behalf of the user — without their direct involvement in every click.
The technology is based on the Visa Intelligent Commerce infrastructure. The AI agent scans available rewards on Visa cards, compares offers, and selects the optimal option. The first testing ground was the Bruce Lee Club store in Hong Kong. This is not just a test — it is a demonstration of how artificial intelligence can take over routine shopping tasks.
Security and control remain with the user
A key point that developers emphasize is that the user does not lose control. You set spending limits and transaction rules yourself. Payments are processed through Visa's secure tokenization system, which prevents the direct transfer of sensitive card data to the agent. This alleviates the main fear regarding autonomous payments — data leakage.
Animoca Brands CEO Yat Siu called this step a transition from the era of "recommendations" to the era of "agent commerce." Artificial intelligence no longer just suggests products — it acts within the permissions you set, saving time and money.
The Minds platform is notable because it allows you to create and configure such agents without writing a single line of code. This opens the door for mass adoption — not only for geeks but also for ordinary users. The company plans to scale the service to other regions and marketplaces.
It is worth noting that this trend is not isolated. Back in June, the Alchemy platform, together with Visa, launched the AgentCard service, which also enables AI agents to make online purchases. The market is clearly moving toward making agents full participants in the economy.
Expert opinion: This is not just another fintech pilot. We are witnessing a fundamental change in the model of human interaction with the digital market. If agents truly learn to negotiate effectively and find the best deals, retail commerce could lose its familiar "human-store" model. The only question is how quickly users will trust their wallets to algorithms. My forecast: within two years, such services will become the standard for the premium segment.