Visa and OpenAI Link ‘Agent Payment’… AI Shopping Moves to the Transaction Level

Visa ($V) has partnered with OpenAI to make a full-scale entry into the AI 'agent payment' market. The system operates on a structure where the AI handles everything from product search to purchase and payment within set limits and conditions, without the user having to manually press a payment button.

This collaboration aligns with ChatGPT's strategy to expand 'Agent Commerce.' With Visa ($V), which possesses a global payment network, taking charge of the payment infrastructure, it is being assessed that AI-based shopping is moving beyond the recommendation stage into the actual transaction stage.

Direct integration of Visa payment network with OpenAI products

Visa ($V) and OpenAI announced a partnership at the Visa Payments Forum held in San Francisco, USA on the 12th. Under this agreement, Visa's payment tools will be integrated into OpenAI products, enabling developers and merchants to receive Visa payments executed by AI agents on behalf of users.

The key is 'automatic payments under user control.' Payments are made only within conditions pre-set by the user, such as spending limits, merchant types, and the need for additional approval. Visa provides network, tokenization, and risk management functions for this process, and handles real-time approval, fraud detection, refunds, and chargeback processing.

The company explained that it enhanced security by utilizing tokenized Visa credentials. Simply put, it is a method of processing payments using alternative identifiers instead of transmitting actual card information directly.

From 'Search' to 'Transactions'... AI Commerce Competition Intensifies

This collaboration is part of Visa's 'Visa Intelligent Commerce' strategy. It is an attempt to expand payment capabilities into an AI-centric environment. Both companies are exploring potential applications not only for personal consumption but also for enterprise use.

In particular, a case involving developer payments utilizing OpenAI's coding agent, 'Codex,' was mentioned. It was explained that in the future, the Codex agent could evolve to allow users to directly purchase inference services, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and other developer services within a user-defined scope.

The payments industry views this as the next battleground for online retail. Rubail Berwadker, Visa's head of global growth, told Axios, "More than one in five total transactions are actually influenced by information learned by large language models." He predicted that AI is changing consumers' purchasing decisions faster than expected and could establish itself as a natural payment experience in the long term, similar to Apple Pay or ShopPay.

Release date TBD… OpenAI struggled in previous experiments

However, neither company disclosed a specific launch schedule or how it would be implemented on the consumer screen. Currently, it is closer to the stage of first building the foundation to support 'agent payments'.

This is not the first time OpenAI has attempted an AI shopping feature. Last September, it introduced 'Instant Checkout,' which allowed users to purchase products from Etsy sellers within ChatGPT, but it failed to garner a significant response, and it is reported that the feature has been scaled back this year. CNBC reported on this move to withdraw the feature last March.

Subsequently, in November of last year, the company changed its approach to a 'shopping research' method that provides a buying guide by integrating product specifications, reviews, and price information. In other words, it placed more emphasis on product exploration and comparison, which are pre-payment stages.

The key is security and adaptability to the distribution network.

"AI will change commerce more deeply than the internet or mobile technology," said Jack Forristal, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer. "As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa's focus is on ensuring that transactions are trustworthy, secure, and seamless."

Marco Marus, Head of Commerce Partnerships at OpenAI, also explained that the likelihood of agents handling not only purchases and payments but also more complex financial transactions is increasing, and that the purpose of this integration is to keep these transactions 'safe, transparent, and under user control.'

The market views this announcement as more than just a simple technology partnership. Kumar Sentil, co-founder of the agent commerce platform Firmly AI, assessed it as “a signal that agent commerce is moving beyond the product discovery stage and closer to the point of actual transaction.” He pointed out that since existing e-commerce infrastructure is designed to match the flow of human website clicks, distribution systems must change in the future to enable AI to interpret product information, check inventory, compare options, and even complete the payment process.

While this collaboration between Visa ($V) and OpenAI is still in its early stages, it demonstrates the potential for AI to evolve beyond a mere recommendation tool into a "controller that moves wallets." However, it is also clear that challenges remain before actual mass adoption, such as building consumer trust, overhauling merchant systems, and clarifying liability.