DBS Becomes First Asia-Pacific Bank to Pilot Visa Intelligent Commerce for Everyday AI Payments

DBS Bank, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, has announced a strategic collaboration with Visa to pilot AI-initiated payments under the Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC) platform, becoming the first issuer in Asia-Pacific to advance real-world agent commerce use cases.

The initiative marks a significant step in moving agent-led commerce from concept to operational reality, leveraging Visa’s secure infrastructure to enable consent-based, authenticated AI-driven transactions on behalf of consumers.

AI Adoption Creates Momentum for Agent Commerce

The collaboration comes amid rapid AI adoption in Singapore.

A study commissioned by Visa found that 77% of Singapore residents already use generative AI tools, such as chatbots, in their daily routines. The trend extends to e-commerce, where eight in ten consumers report relying on AI assistance during online purchases.

These insights underscore how deeply embedded AI has become in Singapore’s digital habits — creating a foundation for AI-initiated financial transactions.

From Pilot to Practical Application

Through a series of live food and beverage transactions, DBS and Visa successfully demonstrated that AI agents can complete everyday purchases using DBS/POSB credit and debit cards via secure, issuer-controlled workflows.

The next phase of the pilot will explore broader applications, including:

• Online retail purchases

• Travel bookings

• Additional digital commerce use cases

The objective is to streamline digital transactions, reduce manual steps and enhance payment efficiency — while maintaining strict security and authentication controls.

Secure Infrastructure and AI-Ready Credentials

Visa Intelligent Commerce integrates a suite of APIs and a partner ecosystem built on Visa’s global payments infrastructure. The platform supports:

• AI-ready tokenized card credentials

• Advanced authentication protocols

• Intent-based payment signals

• Issuer-managed permissions

Ananya Sen, Group Head of Regional Consumer Banking at DBS, noted that AI agents are ushering in a new phase of digital payments, where routine transactions can be executed efficiently and reliably, saving customers time and simplifying daily tasks.

T.R. Ramachandran, Head of Products & Solutions for Asia-Pacific at Visa, described the collaboration as a significant milestone in ecosystem readiness, emphasizing that trusted agent protocols and AI-ready credentials are critical to building scalable, secure agent commerce frameworks.

Defining the Next Generation of Payments

As the pilot progresses, DBS is strengthening its readiness for agent-led commerce by validating AI-ready credentials, enhancing authentication layers and implementing intent-driven transaction controls.

The partnership aims to embed trust, accountability and customer choice into every transaction — positioning DBS and Visa at the forefront of AI-powered commerce in the Asia-Pacific region.

Beyond incremental innovation, the initiative signals a structural evolution in digital payments: AI agents may soon become a standard interface for everyday financial transactions, balancing convenience with governance and resilience.