Abu Dhabi-based AI firm Inception, a G42 company, has announced a strategic partnership with global digital payments leader Visa. The collaboration aims to accelerate the adoption of agentic commerce across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA), signaling a new era for automated digital transactions in the region.
The Dawn of Agentic Commerce
Agentic commerce represents a significant evolution in digital shopping, where AI agents can autonomously discover, compare, purchase, and manage transactions on behalf of consumers and businesses. As these AI-powered experiences become more prevalent, the need for a secure and trusted framework is paramount to ensure every interaction is authenticated and protected from fraud.
Through this partnership, Inception will integrate Visa Intelligent Commerce into its advanced agentic commerce solutions. This will provide merchants, issuers, and ecosystem partners with secure, AI-driven payment capabilities built on a trusted global network.
A Fusion of AI and Secure Payments
The collaboration leverages the distinct strengths of both companies. Inception brings its advanced AI stack, which includes domain-specific Large Language Models (LLMs), multimodal intelligence, and enterprise-grade agentic components. This technology enables the creation of intelligent and seamless autonomous shopping experiences.
Visa provides the foundational security layer with Visa Intelligent Commerce, which offers secure tokenization, passkey-based authentication, agent identity protocols, and the necessary safeguards for AI agents to transact safely within its network. Together, these capabilities will empower Inception’s industry-focused AI products to support secure, agent-driven commerce, enhancing everything from procurement and workflow automation to enterprise operations.
Ashish Koshy, CEO of Inception, commented on the strategic move, stating, “Agentic commerce is reshaping how transactions happen, and working with Visa ensures that these AI-driven journeys are built on a trusted payments foundation. By integrating Visa Intelligent Commerce into innovative agentic commerce solutions, we will equip merchants, issuers, and digital platforms with the right tools to unlock intelligent, frictionless commerce at scale.”
Godfrey Sullivan, Head of Product and Solutions for CEMEA at Visa, added, “AI agents are introducing a new era of digital commerce, and trust will be the core requirement for these experiences to scale. Inception’s advanced AI capabilities, combined with Visa Intelligent Commerce, will give businesses a practical way to explore this future with confidence. By working together, we are enabling organizations across the region to test, learn, and roll out secure agent-driven shopping and payment experiences that are built on Visa’s trusted network.”
Driving Regional Adoption
Beyond the technology integration, Inception and Visa will jointly work on developing new agent-based commerce capabilities. The partnership will also focus on co-supporting pilot programs, client demonstrations, and ecosystem-readiness initiatives to help organizations across the CEMEA region explore and adopt agent-driven shopping and transaction experiences.
About Inception
Inception, a G42 company, is the region’s leading innovator of AI-powered domain-specific as well as industry-agnostic products, built on a rich heritage of research and development. Within the G42 ecosystem, Inception functions as the core intelligence layer – transforming data and compute infrastructure into real-world, applied AI solutions. Key products include (In)Sight, (In)Alpha, (In)Procurement, (In)Climate and (In)Health, each designed to empower organizations with AI-driven insights that enable efficiency and innovation. Inception’s (In)Business Suite is an industry-agnostic set of products that enhance different business functions such as human capital, customer experience, productivity and process management.
Beyond its commercial endeavors, Inception is committed to creating positive societal impact. Believing that language should never be a barrier to innovation, it has developed three bi-lingual LLMs: JAIS (Arabic), NANDA (Hindi), and SHERKALA (Kazakh). Through QudraTech, an AI-capacity building program for talent upskilling and remote work for Emiratis, Inception actively supports the UAE’s ambition to become the world’s most AI-prepared nation.
Source: Zawya
