Mastercard Partners With Alchemy to Bring Virtual Cards to AI Shopping Agents

Meta went live with an agent-commerce layer at Meta Connect 2026, expanding its Muse ecosystem so that the Muse Spark personal AI agent can shop and check out on behalf of users. Meta confirmed that PayPal global Muse payments will let customers shop and check out using their Muse personal AI agents across PayPal merchants worldwide, while Shopify and Stripe have integrated their Shop Pay and Link wallets to enable agent-native commerce infrastructure, with Muse able to search the Shopify catalog and execute checkout directly in-app. The connectors also include Expedia and Instacart, effectively turning the Muse agent into a digital wallet. The technical leap is the Muse computer-use capability, which runs in a Muse Secure VM, an isolated Linux virtual machine in the cloud, letting the agent interact with native macOS apps like Files, Mail and Calendar and drive a full browser. Meta also unveiled the Luna camera-free smart glasses with six microphones, open-ear speakers and a dedicated AI button, though Muse-on-glasses was only teased as coming soon and was not shipped at the keynote, with 2.5M US downloads as of September 20. Amazon has blocked Muse from its platform, a revealing exclusion that suggests the future of commerce may be a battle between open agent-accessible platforms and walled gardens, and the industry is building ahead of the GENIUS Act enforcement cliff looming on January 18, 2027.

Visa announced on September 23 that, in a survey of U.S. consumers on international money transfers, intent to use stablecoins would rise from 36% to 56% if fraud protections and deposit insurance equivalent to those of banks were provided. The survey, part of Visa's "Money Travels 2026," was conducted by Morning Consult from February 24 to March 2 among 2,192 U.S. adults, with respondents given definitions of key terms such as stablecoins before being questioned. Sixty-four percent said that when it comes to trusting new payment methods, they place more importance on who provides the service than on the technology itself, and intent to use stablecoins rose from 36% to 45% when they were offered through existing financial services providers. Among providers of digital currency services, trust was high in traditional commercial banks and global payment networks, at 61% and 60% respectively. Awareness, meanwhile, remains a challenge: 56% of respondents said they had never heard of stablecoins, and even among those aware of them, some mistakenly believed they were subject to price fluctuations like Bitcoin. Regarding fraud in international money transfers, 36% said they had encountered it, 24% had received AI-generated messages that looked genuine, and 44% were concerned about AI deepfakes impersonating family members. The question assuming bank-level protections was hypothetical, and stablecoins themselves are not covered by deposit insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Visa has partnered with Reap to bring stablecoin-linked credit card programs to more than 100 markets, letting businesses fund card spending with stablecoins while merchants continue to accept Visa payments. Reap will handle card processing, compliance and day-to-day operations, and already settles its Asia-Pacific obligations with Visa directly in stablecoins. The two companies also plan to explore payments made by AI agents within limits set by users, though that work remains an exploration rather than a launched product. Visa shares edged up about 0.3% to $362.95 Wednesday morning on the news. The announcement offers no forecast for card spending or additional Visa revenue, leaving the test as whether the programs bring meaningful payment volume onto Visa's network.