I don’t see how there’s really much room for improvement in terms of convenience. Buying things online is already very simple, typing in the thing you want to buy and sorting through some options. If you want to do it efficiently, it takes up very little time, although some people enjoy the process and choose to spend lots of time on it.
Comment on Visa says AI will start shopping and paying for you in 2026
wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io 3 days ago
Ok, so I think I’ve actually seen some of this in action. And, I think there is a certain level of convenience here that isn’t properly being conveyed in the short headline.
Imagine you want to pay your utility bill by credit card. Your smart meter tracks your usage and enters it into the utility system. Their AI agent then generates a utility bill based upon your purchase agreement. Another agent performs an audit to verify the numbers. And lastly, another agent sends the invoice to your cc company.
Now on your side. You’ve already authorized the cc company to authorize utility payments up to a certain threshold and frequency. It understands the rules and so it processes the payment for you.
Now, you may ask. “How is this different than autopay.” Well, for one, you no longer would have to configure your autopay with every single company, you just do it with your bank or cc company, making it more centralized and convenient.
Potentially less overhead for both companies too. Less maintenance for all the websites and payment processes your utility company has to keep up now. Less people involved in the invoicing stream too. And I don’t know about you, but personally I feel like an AP clerk would be a fairly dull way to live. Let them do the more complex work of bulk invoice auditing.
In the cc side, agent can streamline the processes and API handshakes where they have agreements with companies like the utility company. And on your side, you get the convenience of autopay. Much better than the current duct taped together connextorys and processes between companies. And moreover, much less of your time to pay than the days of yore when you had to sign and handover your check through the utility company drive through.
I could also see this being used for routine maintenance, groceries, prescriptions. Anything where you have a typical ordering frequency and schedule.
Of course, this could get all wiki sticks quickly. Companies could abuse it and jack up prices since you’re not monitoring it, but they do that now anyway, so we have to remain vigilant.
chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Ashtear@piefed.social 3 days ago
This is where I sit on it. I think there’s a way to create a personal shopping assistant that would save people time, but the problem is I don’t make enough money to have a comfortable enough margin for the error rate it would certainly have, to speak nothing of whether it would find the prices I’d be satisfied with. I don’t know how many people are in affordable enough living situations where using this to save time would even be responsible.
And that’s assuming the agent is working in the best interests of the user, which we all know isn’t how this is going to work. In general, I don’t know if I’ll ever be comfortable with agentic AI spending my money without it being codified into law that AI agents must have a provable fiduciary duty to end users. As far as I know, no one’s even talking about that.
LordMayor@piefed.social 3 days ago
But, that’s how I’ve been doing autopay for years. My utilities send the bill to my bank. My bank gives me the option of automatically paying it or logging into the bank and clicking a button.
This existed before the latest AI craze.