Visa has set out a suite of AI, tokenisation and stablecoin capabilities it says will help banks and merchants across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Cemea) prepare for the next phase of commerce – one in which software agents increasingly shop and pay on people’s behalf.

The announcement this week groups the changes into two shifts the company says are reshaping both the frontends and backends of money movement: AI at the point of purchase, and stablecoins in the plumbing behind settlement.

“Commerce is entering a new phase that is increasingly intelligent, programmable and embedded into everyday experiences,” said Tareq Muhmood, regional president for Cemea at Visa. “For companies serving the digital economy the opportunity is significant, but so is the need for trust and interoperability.”

At the frontend, Visa is expanding Visa Intelligent Commerce, its platform for so-called agentic commerce, meant to give AI agents the controls to discover, initiate and complete transactions securely. Two new pieces support it: an Agent Score, built with New Generation, that lets merchants test whether AI agents can navigate and complete tasks on their sites, and an Agentic Directory that verifies which agents and merchants are legitimate participants.

The news comes as Visa readies local banks for the shift. As TechCentral reported last month, the company has enrolled South African banks in its Agentic Ready programme, though none has gone live locally yet, and has deepened a partnership with OpenAI to embed its network into AI experiences. Consumer appetite remains the sticking point: Visa’s own Stay Secure 2026 study found only 23% of South African consumers would trust an AI agent to complete a purchase for them.

Richer, more trusted tokens

Tokenisation has been one of the main drivers of e-commerce growth in the region. In Cemea, tokenised transactions have climbed from 26% in 2023 to 70% in 2026, according to Visa. The company is now enriching the data tokens carry – adding detail on the transaction type, where a token is used and who is making the payment – and introducing a token assurance signal that judges each token across its lifecycle to gauge the trust behind a transaction. Visa argues this gives tokens a stronger role as the foundation for automated, AI-driven payments.

On settlement, Visa said it has moved billions of dollars in stablecoins across VisaNet, reaching an annualised run rate of about US$7-billion as of March 2026, up from the $4.5-billion it cited in January. In Cemea, settlement volumes have risen nearly 60 times since the capability launched a year ago. With issuing banks already settling seven days a week on-chain, Visa is working to extend the same to acquirers.

The company also plans Tokenised Deposits, a technology layer to let banks turn traditional deposits into programmable, always-on digital money while keeping funds on their balance sheets, and said more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes are now live or in development globally. The moves sharpen a contest with rival Mastercard, which is plotting its own stablecoin push, and play to a region where Africa is among the world’s fastest-growing markets for stablecoin adoption.

Visa also launched Visa Trip Intelligence in Cemea, an AI travel capability that combines VisaNet data with third-party sources to infer travel intent and generate itineraries, letting banks offer pre-travel support and reduce payment friction. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media