11/26/2025

Agentic Commerce: The Threat Landscape

Visa

Agentic Commerce Threat Landscape

From markets, to malls, to mobile, shopping is continuously evolving. The next major shift is AI agents that can buy and sell on our behalf.

Agentic commerce is poised to transform how we shop. AI-powered shopping agents promise faster, smarter transactions — but where innovation leads; fraud often follows – fast. Agentic artificial intelligence — autonomous systems capable of initiating, adapting, and executing complex tasks without human oversight — is rapidly reshaping the cyber threat landscape.

Criminals are noticing. Visa PERC identified a more than 450%¹ increase in dark web community posts in underground channels mentioning “AI Agent” over the past six months compared to the prior six-month period. By removing traditional human bottlenecks, these tools enable fraud at a scale and sophistication previously unattainable. What once required coordinated teams of skilled fraudsters can now be executed by AI, automating workflows necessary to design and deploy scams, tailoring social engineering tactics, and rapidly creating convincing criminal infrastructures for higher efficacy and victim monetization.