Visa CMO: AI agents are your new customers — here’s how to sell to them

Very soon, many of your customers will have liaisons. And they won’t be human. We’re entering the next frontier in commerce: the rise of Business-to-AI, or B2AI. AI agents are becoming a new customer segment. As AI agents increasingly mediate how people research, evaluate, and purchase products, companies will need to rethink how they show up within those decision architectures. Recent Visa research shows businesses are already preparing for this shift. Seventy-one percent of businesses say they are willing to optimize products and offers specifically for AI agents, and more than half say they would allow AI agents to negotiate prices or terms directly with other AI systems. And there are early signs that AI search traffic converts at remarkably high levels, jumpstarting traditional acquisition funnels. This leap to B2AI will rewrite much of what we know about customer acquisition. You won’t just be influencing people anymore. Increasingly, you will need to convince the AI systems that inform their decisions. For all intents and purposes, you should treat AI agents as thought-partners to the customer. And the core tenets of how to approach any thought-partner still apply, as long as you transcreate them to agentic structure: Meet the partner where they are; educate them about your point of view; mesh with their movements; build trust then convenience; ensure you’re clear about your purpose. 1. Structure your data so machines can find — and trust — you. AI agents rely on structured signals, not just marketing copy. Product specifications, pricing, availability, and attributes should be organized so machines can easily evaluate and compare options. That means investing in structured product catalogs, consistent metadata, and standardized schemas that allow AI systems to interpret your offering accurately. If AI agents cannot clearly understand your product, they are unlikely to recommend it. Consider this a form of machine-readable shelf presence: just as a consumer-…