OpenAI integrates Visa into ChatGPT for payments via AI agents.

      OpenAI is integrating a payment network into ChatGPT. As announced during the Visa Payments Forum on Wednesday, an expanded partnership will enable AI agents within OpenAI’s products to shop and make payments on behalf of users at over 175 million merchant locations that accept Visa, once the user provides permission.

      The concept is straightforward: instruct ChatGPT to search for wireless headphones priced under $150 or to reorder paper towels, and the agent finalizes the purchase. Visa will provide the necessary infrastructure, including tokenized card credentials linked to a specific agent, real-time authorization, agent identification, and fraud monitoring, similar to the systems it operates for over 300 billion transactions annually.

      Users will set parameters such as spending limits, approval thresholds, and merchant restrictions, ensuring that a human retains control, at least initially.

      OpenAI’s renewed venture into commerce

      This isn't OpenAI's inaugural effort to convert ChatGPT into a checkout platform. Previously, it launched Instant Checkout late last year, allowing the chatbot to locate and purchase specific items, but it relied on a 4 percent merchant fee that retailers found unappealing, leading to minimal adoption and its retirement in March.

      The partnership with Visa alleviates the trust, fraud, and dispute challenges that OpenAI faced, leveraging a network designed to handle those aspects. Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, noted that transitioning from AI agents making product recommendations to executing purchases necessitates a significantly heightened level of trust.

      Additionally, it represents a competitive move within the industry. Visa already collaborates with Microsoft, Stripe, Shopify, and Worldpay through its Trusted Agent Protocol; Mastercard has its own Agent Pay; Google offers Universal Cart; and Amazon markets its shopping AI. Even brokerage firms are enabling agents to make purchases. Everyone is eager to capture the moment an AI clicks “buy.”

      At this stage, however, it remains more of a promise than an actual product.

      Visa and OpenAI have not provided a launch date, pricing details, or any information on the user interface, nor have they specified what merchants or customers might pay. Visa’s product page clarifies that the system is "currently in the process of deployment," and the final version "may not include all of the features described."

      The critical unresolved issues revolve around who absorbs the loss when an agent makes an incorrect purchase or a user challenges a charge, how banks will handle fraud claims related to agent-initiated payments, and whether users will indeed allow automated checkouts without oversight.

      Forestell illustrated the end goal: you authorize a thousand agent purchases, and then "your agent asks, 'Should I just proceed without confirmation?'" Whether shoppers agree is the core gamble.