Banco Santander and Visa have concluded Latin America’s first controlled AI agent-initiated transactions in five markets as part of a pilot project.
The pilot, which took place in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay, utilized Visa’s Intelligent Commerce (VIC) technology. Transactions adhered to the regulations set by both companies and met existing supervisory standards. AI agents successfully purchased items such as books across four markets, while in Brazil, a chocolate purchase demonstrated cross-market execution.
How Visa Intelligent Commerce Supports This Initiative
Visa’s Intelligent Commerce was designed to enable AI agents to initiate transactions on behalf of consumers. It integrates consent capture, secure data handling, and interoperability among various merchants and payment networks. The system is meant to allow consumers to delegate shopping tasks to AI agents while ensuring issuer controls remain intact and security standards are met.
The pilot successfully tested the consumer journey within this framework, proving that AI agents can operate across different markets and merchant environments without compromising data integrity or bypassing consumer authorisation requirements.
Research from Visa indicates that over 70% of Latin American consumers are already incorporating AI tools into their shopping behavior. The companies see agentic commerce as a near-term development expected to gain significant traction by 2026.
Industry Implications and Regional Considerations
The partnership between Banco Santander and Visa highlights an industry-wide effort to establish technical and governance standards for AI-driven commerce at scale. By running the pilot in multiple markets simultaneously, both companies demonstrated that this model is not confined to a single regulatory environment.
For issuers and payment networks operating in Latin America, questions around liability frameworks, consumer consent mechanisms, and the readiness of existing infrastructure for autonomous transaction initiation are being raised. The participation of a major regional bank like Banco Santander alongside Visa’s network infrastructure suggests that the transition from pilot to broader deployment could occur swiftly if regulatory conditions permit.
