Stripe's AI shopping lead puts card giants on edge

Stripe has taken a leading role in how AI shopping assistants like Instinct and Meta's Muse pay for purchases, often using one-time virtual cards. That leaves Visa and Mastercard with less control over the payment process, while their own agent-payment technology remains at an early stage.

• Stripe enables AI agent purchases via one-time virtual cards
• Visa and Mastercard are building alternatives using customers' existing cards
• The card networks' method is still at an early stage