JPMorgan: AI Shopping Agents Roll Out, Payments Still Run on Card Networks

according to Chaoxiang Research, JPMorgan's October 23, 2026 research report states that Meta's AI assistant Muse has approximately 12 million global downloads, with 25% of users utilizing it for shopping at an average transaction value of $200; AI shopping agents (AI assistants that complete search, price comparison, and ordering on behalf of users) still process payments through card networks, executing transactions via virtual and tokenized cards; under a scenario with 60 million users spending an average of $6,000 annually, AI shopping agent purchases would account for 3.4% of Visa and Mastercard's US purchase volume in 2026, while under a scenario with 100 million users spending $10,000 annually, they would account for 9.3%.

JPMorgan assesses that the AI shopping agent workflow more closely resembles traditional e-commerce, limiting its short-term impact on payment stocks. Payment networks benefit from card transactions, the trust and lending moats surrounding online checkout remain intact, and the operating environment for traditional acquirers is improving. Regarding ratings, Affirm, Chime, Marqeta, Remitly, and Toast are rated Overweight, PayPal and Klarna are Neutral, and Western Union is rated Underweight.