AI Agents Power Payments
Visa and OpenAI Expand Partnership for Secure AI Agentic Payments, Transforming Commerce
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Key Points
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Visa’s chief product and strategy officer Jack Forestell said, “AI will transform commerce more profoundly than the Internet or mobile technology ever did,” adding that Visa’s focus is to ensure “transactions are trusted, secure and seamless.”
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Visa described the agentic payments workflow as allowing authorized software agents to independently perform product searches and execute purchases, but only after receiving explicit user permission.
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Visa’s OpenAI expansion is part of a broader competitive and ecosystem push: the network previously pursued separate AI collaborations with Anthropic and Microsoft, while Mastercard and PayPal are also building alternative systems for how consumers and businesses interact through automated financial technology.
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At Visa Payments Forum 2026, Visa said its “token assurance signal” measures trust using “provisioning and behavioral history,” and that token upgrades would add further detail such as transaction type, token use, and payment origin—designed to strengthen approvals and reduce friction.
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In Latin America, Visa said its goal is to digitize 93 million microbusinesses, and emphasized security prerequisites for AI commerce—prioritizing tools like biometric authentication and tokenization, and preparing infrastructure to verify whether a buyer or seller is a real person rather than a bot or AI-generated deepfake.
Visa has embedded its payment network directly into ChatGPT, letting AI agents shop and pay for users without a human clicking a single button. The partnership was unveiled June 10 at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco, where Visa's chief product and strategy officer Jack Forestell declared that "AI will transform commerce more profoundly than the internet or mobile technology ever did." Yahoo Finance
The deal is the biggest step yet in what Visa calls "agentic commerce" — a model where authorized software agents get permission once, then independently search products and complete purchases on a user's behalf. OpenAI's Marco Mahrus said agents will "play an increasingly important role in helping people complete tasks that involve money." TechXplore
How the Visa-ChatGPT Payment System Actually Works
When a user grants permission, a ChatGPT agent can browse, compare, and buy products using Visa's existing payment tokens — no card number exposed at checkout. Visa calls these "AI-Ready Cards." The tokens carry a new "token assurance signal" that measures trust using provisioning and behavioral history, according to Moneycheck. This signal helps merchants approve purchases with less friction.
Visa also launched three new tools at the forum. "Agent Score" lets merchants judge whether an agent can reliably complete a task. An "Agentic Directory" lists verified agents and merchants. And token upgrades add details like transaction type and payment origin. Parameter reported these tools are already rolling out to selected merchants in North America and Latin America as of June 11.
A Bumpy Road Before Visa Stepped In
This partnership did not come out of nowhere. Visa launched its Visa Intelligent Commerce sandbox in May 2025, letting developers test AI payment tools with partners including Anthropic and Samsung. OpenAI tried its own path first — launching "Instant Checkout" in ChatGPT in September 2025 through Stripe. That feature was retired by March 2026 due to high merchant fees and technical errors, according to TechXplore.
The failure of Instant Checkout exposed a core problem: plugging AI into payments requires deep network-level integration, not just a checkout button. Visa's existing token infrastructure and its 98% gross profit margin give it the financial room to build what smaller fintech rivals cannot, according to analysts cited by Yahoo Finance.
Fighting Fraud When the "Buyer" Is a Bot
One big challenge with AI-led payments is proving a real human authorized the purchase. Visa calls this the "proof of personhood" problem. Deepfakes and bots make it hard to tell whether a buyer is a legitimate person. Visa is leaning on biometric authentication and tokenization to verify identity before any agent transaction clears. Moneycheck noted that the Agentic Directory is designed specifically to flag whether a buyer or seller is a person or an AI.
Consumer trust remains a real hurdle. Research shows 53% of U.S. businesses are willing to let AI agents negotiate prices with other AI agents. But surveys show everyday shoppers are still cautious about letting software spend their money without a final human confirmation, according to Yahoo Finance. Visa says its rollout is phased — fully independent agent transactions require more development before going mainstream.
Stablecoins, Latin America, and the Bigger Bet
Visa is not just rewiring the front end of commerce. It is also modernizing the back end through stablecoin settlement, which hit a $7 billion annualized run rate on VisaNet as of March 2026. Forestell framed it simply: stablecoins change how money moves on the back end, while AI transforms how shoppers buy on the front end. Parameter noted these two threads are part of one unified strategy.
In Latin America, Visa has a specific target: digitize 93 million microbusinesses that currently operate mostly in cash. OpenAI-powered agents could help these small operators automate tasks like inventory orders and supplier payments without hiring extra staff. Visa faces competition on all fronts — Mastercard and PayPal are each building rival agentic payment systems, while crypto-native players behind the x402 protocol want AI payments to bypass card networks entirely, according to Moneycheck.
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