Visa, OpenAI partner to enable payments through AI agents

Visa has partnered with OpenAI to enable secure payments within AI-powered commerce experiences, as the payments giant moves to position its network for a future in which artificial intelligence agents help consumers and businesses complete transactions.The companies announced the strategic collaboration on June 10 at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco.Under the partnership, Visa will integrate its global payments network, credentialing tools, tokenisation and security infrastructure into OpenAI experiences, allowing payments to be initiated by AI agents while remaining subject to user controls.Visa said the arrangement forms part of its broader Visa Intelligent Commerce initiative, which is focused on extending secure payment capabilities into new digital environments. The companies will also explore enterprise uses, including developer-focused experiences powered by OpenAI’s Codex and more automated, conversational workflows.The move comes as AI companies and payment networks look beyond chat-based tools toward systems that can carry out tasks on behalf of users, including purchases, payments and other transactions.Visa said the payment experiences would operate within defined user permissions, including spending limits, merchant categories and required approvals. Transactions will use tokenised Visa credentials, real-time authorisation and fraud monitoring, the company said.“AI will transform commerce more profoundly than the internet or mobile technology ever did,” said Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer. “As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa’s focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure and seamless.”Marco Mahrus, OpenAI’s head of partnerships for commerce, said agents are expected to play a growing role in helping people complete tasks involving money, from purchases and payments to more complex transactions.Visa said the collaboration is intended to give developers and merchants a streamlined way to accept Visa payments initiated by AI agents, while maintaining security, transparency and user control.