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Published · 5h agoProduct2 min read

AI-driven traffic to US retail sites rose more than 4,700% in a year, Visa says

Visa's launch release for Trusted Agent Protocol dates the AI shopping surge at more than 4,700% in a year, and the protocol would have agents sign their identity at checkout. Shopify has agreed to let Meta's Muse check out through Shop Pay first.

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Artwork accompanying AI-driven traffic to US retail sites rose more than 4,700% in a year, Visa says

What happened

  • Visa's launch release for Trusted Agent Protocol says AI-driven traffic to retail websites in the United States surged over 4,700% over the past year.
  • Shopify and Meta agreed to let Meta's Muse assistant complete purchases on users' behalf through Shop Pay across the platform's full roster of stores.
  • Amazon has blocked Muse and asked Meta to remove Amazon from the experience, saying the agent appears to harvest login credentials and scrape account details without identifying itself as automated.

Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made

Why it matters

  • cost Agent orders reach Shopify merchants at their existing Shopify Payments rates, so the new channel lands on current pricing and there is no separate rate to negotiate or refuse.
  • exposure Every unsigned agent order sits in a merchant's fraud and dispute rules as a customer using saved credentials, and Visa's consulting arm puts operational, fraud and regulatory risk on institutions that leave those models alone.
  • contradiction Visa wants sellers to trust agents as much as their best customers, while Amazon describes the most prominent consumer agent as an undisclosed third party executing transactions without authorisation.

More than 4,700% in a year is a multiple of about 48, and what it multiplies is visits to US retail websites, not completed orders [1][20]. The release pairs it with one other figure: 85% of shoppers who have used AI to shop say it improved their shopping experience [2]. Visa did not publish the base period, the sample, or a conversion rate for either number.

For a shop, the traffic number turns on whether the checkout can tell an agent from a customer. Visa puts bot detection systems that mistakenly block legitimate agentic transactions first among the problems it says merchants now face. The others: supporting agent-driven guest and logged-in checkout, and keeping visibility into the consumer behind the agent [4]. Trusted Agent Protocol was built with Cloudflare and published in the Visa Developer Center and on GitHub. Its answer is a cryptographic signature carrying agent intent, whether the consumer already has an account with the merchant, and optionally the payment data [3][5]. It sits on the HTTP Message Signature standard, and in this phase the specifications apply to the Visa network [6].

Amazon's objection to Muse is that signature arriving late. The company said the agent appears to harvest login credentials and scrape account details without identifying itself as an automated tool. That, it says, lets an undisclosed third party access accounts and execute transactions without its knowledge or authorisation [13][14]. "Agentic third-party applications such as Muse have the same obligations, and we've requested that Meta remove Amazon from the experience," an Amazon spokesperson told Retail Insight Network [12]. Retail Insight Network said it has contacted Meta for comment [15].

Visa's pitch runs the other way. "We believe the entire payments ecosystem has a responsibility to ensure sellers can trust AI agents as much as they trust their best customers and networks," said Jack Forestell, Visa's chief product and strategy officer [18].

Who owns the checkout surface sorts this for the person who has to answer for it: Amazon owned its own and could demand removal, while a merchant whose payments run through Shop Pay inherits Shopify's answer, at existing Shopify Payments rates [7][8]. Detection sorts the rest. Until agents sign, an agent order in your own logs looks like a customer using saved email, payment, shipping and billing details [7]. Visa's consulting arm warns that banks which do not redesign authentication and dispute models for autonomous flows may expose themselves to operational, fraud and regulatory risks [16].

What to watch

  • Whether Meta answers Amazon's account of credential harvesting, or Muse starts identifying itself as an automated tool at checkout.
  • Whether Trusted Agent Protocol moves past the Visa network into the IETF, OpenID Foundation and EMVCo alignment Visa says it wants, and interoperates with the Agentic Commerce Protocol and x402.
  • Whether Shopify publishes conversion figures for agentic checkout, or gives individual merchants a per-agent switch.

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    Visa's release announcing Trusted Agent Protocol states that over the past year, AI-driven traffic to retail websites in the United States surged over 4,700%.

    ReportedSource: VisaView cited source
  2. [2]

    Visa's release states that 85% of shoppers who have used AI to shop say it improved their shopping experience; the figure carries a footnote marker in the release.

    ReportedSource: VisaView cited source
  3. [3]

    Visa unveiled Trusted Agent Protocol, developed in collaboration with Cloudflare, and said it is available today in the Visa Developer Center and GitHub.

    ReportedView cited source

Sources & coverage · 3 publishers

The reporting this story was synthesized from, earliest first. Every link goes to the original.

  1. finance.yahoo.comyesterday
    Shopify and Meta sign deal on AI-agent shopping
  2. corporate.visa.com
    Visa Unveils Trusted Agent Protocol for AI Commerce | Visa
  3. global-corporate.review.visa.com
    Agentic Commerce: Designing for autonomous payments | Visa

Additional citations

  • Visa
  • Amazon
  • Visa Consulting and Analytics