Verified agents use tokenized credentials instead of shared logins to speed supplier payments while keeping buyers and suppliers in control.
Visa, BILL and Billtrust have launched what they describe as the first live pilot that lets trusted AI agents start and complete approved invoice payments end-to-end through supplier portals, the companies announced Oct. 20.
Until now, many payment portals required human authentication, which limited how far approved payments could be automated. Visa Intelligent Commerce, a portfolio of Visa offerings, aims to close that gap with BILL and Billtrust, providers of accounts payable and receivable software. Using tools such as Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, AI agents can be securely authenticated to credentialed portals. Buyer payments that once required manual entry can be completed by trusted agents, while suppliers keep control and oversight.
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How the pilot works
The process starts when the authorized BILL Payment Agent, registered through Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory, uses tokenized payment credentials and controls matching the buyer’s approved payment instructions to issue payments for BILL’s customers. That lets BILL automate card payments for supplier invoices.
After a payment is initiated, Billtrust uses the protocol to recognize, authenticate and admit the agent, so BILL can complete the payment on the customer’s behalf. The companies say the authentication can satisfy the site protections provided by CAPTCHA and other bot-blocking tools, without a separate agent login. Billtrust customers can receive portal payments quickly, in line with their acceptance policy, which the companies say can help 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 for 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.”
Building trust into agent-initiated payments
The pilot enables:
- A recognized, authenticated AI agent acting for an identified buyer
- Tokenized payment credentials instead of shared supplier-portal logins
- Payment controls tied to the customer’s approved payment instruction
- A payment path tied to the specific invoice
- Visibility into the authorization and completion of the payment
“Nearly 500,000 businesses trust BILL to move, manage and maximize their money, and that trust depends on removing friction without sacrificing accuracy and security of supplier payments. For too long, supplier portals have been friction points, requiring a person to manually complete what should be an automated step,” said Archana Prasad, senior vice president of payments and financial services at BILL. “With Visa and Billtrust, BILL’s AI-powered payments technology is closing that gap: the payment gets done, the supplier gets paid faster, and finance teams get their time back.”
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For suppliers using Billtrust, the pilot offers a way to recognize and accept payments started by trusted business agents. It helps release trapped cash while maintaining the information needed to process and reconcile each payment in accordance with the supplier’s existing acceptance policy. For buyers using BILL, automating this last manual step spares finance teams the time spent keying information into supplier portals.
“Agentic commerce will only move forward if businesses can trust agents to operate across systems with the same clarity and accountability they expect from people,” said Kunal Patel, senior vice president of payments at Billtrust. “By connecting buyer-side invoice approval with supplier-side payment acceptance, this pilot shows how authorized agents can complete business transactions, releasing trapped cash faster while adhering to a complex acceptance policy and preserving visibility and control for both sides.”
The pilot is live and processing end-to-end transactions with participating BILL buyers and Billtrust suppliers. The companies said they will keep exploring agentic payments as it progresses.
