Until now, many payment portals relied on human authentication requirements that limited how approved payments could be automated. Together, with leading accounts payable and receivable solutions providers BILL and Billtrust, the Visa Intelligent CommerceTM portfolio helps bridge that gap. Leveraging offerings such as Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, AI agents can now be securely authenticated to credentialed portals. As a result, buyer payments that previously relied on manual entry can be completed by trusted AI agents, while preserving supplier control and oversight.
How trusted AI agents are overcoming one of payment automation’s biggest barriers
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. Supported by capabilities within the Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC) portfolio, this enables BILL to securely automate card payments for supplier invoices.
Once the payment is initiated, Billtrust leverages Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol to recognize, authenticate, and grant access to the authorized agent enabling BILL to complete the invoice payment on the customer's behalf. This agent authentication can satisfy the site protections historically provided by CAPTCHA and other bot blocking mechanisms, without requiring an additional agent login. As a result, Billtrust customers can receive fast portal payments in accordance with their acceptance policy, which can help accelerate cash flow.
Building trust into agent-initiated B2B payments
Drawing on capabilities within the Visa Intelligent Commerce portfolio, including Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol, the pilot enables:
A recognized and authenticated AI agent acting on behalf of an identified buyer
Tokenized payment credentials rather than shared supplier-portal logins
Payment controls tied to the customer’s approved payment instruction
A purpose-built payment path tied to the specific invoice
Visibility into the authorization and completion of the payment