At Visa’s annual event in San Francisco, the company announced an agreement with OpenAI to enable secure payments within what is known as “agentic” commerce—environments where AI agents act autonomously on behalf of users.
Practically, purchases made via ChatGPT or other OpenAI interfaces can rely on the Visa network. Transactions will operate under user-defined permissions, policies, and controls, such as spending caps, permitted merchant categories, or required approvals. They will use “Visa tokenized identifiers,” paired with real-time authorization and anti-fraud monitoring.
An ambition that goes beyond payments
Beyond the mere transaction, the two players are exploring a range of enterprise applications, including developer-oriented experiences powered by Codex, OpenAI’s coding assistant, as well as more automated and conversational workflows.
All of this sits within Visa Intelligent Commerce, the group’s program aimed at extending its secure payment capabilities to new digital environments.
For Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, the stakes are historic: “AI will transform commerce more profoundly than the Internet or mobile ever has.”
This comes as OpenAI has confidentially filed for an initial public offering.
