Picture this—your AI agent wakes you up, books your flight while you're brushing your teeth, then handles your shopping list before lunch. Sounds futuristic? Not really. The infrastructure for autonomous agents handling transactional tasks is already taking shape, and major payment networks aren't sitting on the sidelines. Visa and Mastercard are actively positioning themselves to facilitate these AI-driven transactions, recognizing that automation of routine financial tasks represents the next frontier. As AI agents become more sophisticated, they'll need seamless access to payment rails and merchant networks. The race is on for payment processors to embed themselves into this emerging ecosystem. It's not just about processing transactions anymore—it's about building the backbone for an automated commerce layer where intelligent agents mediate between consumers and services.