By PYMNTS | October 20, 2026
Visa has launched an agentic payments partnership with accounts payable and receivable solutions providers BILL and Billtrust.
The collaboration is the first live pilot to allow artificial intelligence (AI) agents “to initiate and complete approved buyer invoice payments end-to-end through supplier portals,” Visa said in a news release provided to PYMNTS Tuesday (Oct. 20).
“Until now, many payment portals relied on human authentication requirements that limited how approved payments could be automated,” per the release.
The partnership helps bridge that gap, Visa says. Employing offerings like Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, AI agents can now be securely authenticated to credentialed portals. That means buyer payments that once relied on manual entry can be carried out by trusted AI agents, while upholding supplier control and oversight.
“The flow begins when the authorized BILL Payment Agent — registered using Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory — uses tokenized payment credentials and controls aligned with the buyer’s approved payment instructions to issue payments on behalf of BILL’s customers,” the release added.
Backed by the capabilities of the Visa Intelligent Commerce portfolio, this allows BILL to securely automate card payments for supplier invoices.
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When the payment is initiated, Billtrust uses Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol to recognize, authenticate and permit access to the authorized agent allowing BILL to complete the invoice payment on behalf of the customer.
This agent authentication can address the site protections traditionally provided by CAPTCHA and other bot blocking tools, with no need for an additional agent login. This means Billtrust customers can receive fast portal payments in keeping with their acceptance policy, helping to speed cash flow.
“Businesses should not have to choose between automation and control when making payments,” said Mark Nelsen, senior vice president and head of product, commercial and money movement solutions at Visa.
“This pilot applies agentic commerce to a real B2B-payment problem, by having trusted agents complete payments across platforms. Working with BILL and Billtrust, we are testing how identity, payment controls and transaction visibility can make that model work.”
In other agentic AI news, a recent PYMNTS Intelligence report, “The Agent Advantage: How Merchants Plan to Win AI Shopping,” examines an obstacle facing merchants as consumers make AI part of their shopping routine.
“That opens a powerful new path to demand for AI agents that will soon become a competitive necessity,” the report said.
“The challenge for merchants is how to capture that opportunity without sacrificing sales visibility, customer relationships or margin.”
That illustrates explain why merchants are supporting agentic purchases selectively, with nearly 90% of merchants with an owned site or app planning a hybrid approach balancing direct customer traffic with agent-driven sales.
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