AI Agents Overwhelm Traditional Card Payments Infrastructure

A new report from Visa and Artemis highlights a pressing issue in the global card payments infrastructure. AI agents are pushing traditional cards to their limits, requiring faster settlement and near-zero fees to process high-frequency micropayments.

The joint report found that AI agents have reached a key capability threshold since mid-2025, enabling them to discover unfamiliar APIs, evaluate prices, and decide on autonomous payments. However, the current infrastructure is struggling to keep up with this new demand.

Australian crypto exchange Swyftx estimates that AI-enabled microbusinesses could drive an additional $262 billion in stablecoin volume by 2033 via AI-native payments settled in stablecoins. This growth is attributed to the increasing adoption of machine-native micropayment standards, such as the x402 payment protocol developed by Coinbase.

The report suggests a single machine payment framework that can support both stablecoin-based flows and card transactions, paving the way for card networks to tap into agentic payment flows. Tempo's Machine Payment Protocol (MPP) has already achieved this convergence, spanning on-chain crypto payments and fiat payments via shared payment tokens.