Worldline, ING, Visa Pilot AI Payments in Europe

Worldline, ING, and Visa have successfully completed a pilot for agent-driven payment transactions. This live test took place in Germany and focused on how AI agents can make purchases within specific consumer rules. Here's the thing: A consumer set purchase conditions, like the item and when to buy it, then told a merchant AI agent to handle the task. The user confirmed their purchase intent with Visa Payment Passkeys, and then used biometric authentication. ING, as the bank, authorized the transaction, and Worldline processed it end-to-end. What's interesting is that this pilot shows merchants can support AI-initiated commerce without losing fraud protection. These transactions use existing authentication methods and bank authorization, meaning AI-driven orders can be processed like regular online purchases. Worldline and ING have now joined Visa’s Agentic Ready Programme, which supports testing AI-enabled commerce. The bottom line is this could lead to a new way of buying and paying with AI, while maintaining security.