Visa unveils AI, stablecoin and token capabilities at Payments Forum 2026

Visa introduced new AI, stablecoin and token capabilities at Visa Payments Forum 2026, broadening its push into more automated digital commerce. The company said it is expanding stablecoin settlement pilots across regions, blockchains and currencies, and reiterated that it has moved billions of dollars in stablecoins through VisaNet, with an annualized run rate of $7 billion as of March 2026. Visa also said issuing banks are already settling onchain seven days a week and that it is working to extend seven-day settlement to acquirers. Visa said it will build infrastructure for tokenized deposits, allowing banks to turn traditional deposits into programmable digital money while keeping funds on their balance sheets. It is also adding richer token data and a token assurance signal to improve authorization decisions and reduce false declines. On AI, Visa framed the rollout as part of a shift toward agentic commerce, introducing Agent Score, Agentic Directory and a Large Transaction Model trained on billions of transactions. In a related announcement, Visa said it has partnered with OpenAI so developers and merchants can accept Visa payments initiated by AI agents under user-defined controls such as spending limits, merchant restrictions and approval requirements. The newer source said the initiative could reshape consumer transactions, while noting execution risks and stablecoin integration remain key challenges.