As AI reshapes commerce, Visa’s Jack Forestell explains why merchant control and trust remain vital to the future of AI-driven shopping experiences The commerce sector is undergoing a profound shift with the evolution of AI – transitioning from a passive chatbot into a full-fledged digital store associate. Major global players, from e-commerce platforms like Shopify to travel giants like Priceline, have been leveraging Claude to construct conversational agents. These tools allow buyers to describe what they need using natural language, enabling seamless product discovery, comparison and purchasing within a single dialogue. To accelerate this adoption, Anthropic has now released an open-source blueprint to help build commerce agents on Claude, providing the complete technical scaffolding, including harnesses, design patterns and safety guardrails, required to launch enterprise-ready commerce agents in a matter of days.