Payment card giants Visa and Mastercard have announced plans to integrate with AI “agents,” enabling them to make purchases on users’ behalf by accessing their credit card information. According to Visa, the agents would verify purchases with users at first, but would gain more autonomy over time. AI agents, or “personal assistants,” are advanced versions of popular chatbot large language models (LLMs). They are designed to simplify users’ lives by taking over critical functions across work and day-to-day life. So far, progress on these AI agents has been slow, with little to show for it. However, the payment card companies...