AI-Driven Shopping to Reshape Fintech Landscape by 2026, Favoring Visa and Mastercard
Oppenheimer analysts highlight AI-powered "agentic commerce" as a transformative force in digital payments, with Visa and Mastercard positioned as primary beneficiaries. The shift toward AI-managed shopping experiences—from product discovery to checkout—could marginalize competitors like PayPal and Stripe by 2026.
Consumer spending resilience amid economic uncertainty strengthens the thesis, though analysts caution that firms with diversified revenue streams and spending-agnostic models will outperform. The evolution mirrors the internet's disruption of retail, creating new monetization avenues for fintech innovators.