Last Updated on October 23, 2026 by TMB
Global digital payments company Visa has teamed up with financial software company BILL, and business-to-business (B2B) accounts receivable and cash generation software platform Billtrust, to launch a pilot that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to initiate and complete payments for approved buyer invoices. The live pilot aims to automate and simplify B2B payments, sidestepping several points in the process that require manual effort from finance teams and personnel.
A Visa news release describes the process, stating that the pilot uses the Visa Trusted Agent Protocol, a framework developed with Cloudflare that verifies and authenticates AI agents. This helps ensure the automated steps are trustworthy, while maintaining supplier control and oversight.
The Automated AI Process
The process begins with a BILL Payment Agent registered through Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, issuing payments on the BILL customer’s behalf via tokenized payment credentials. After initiating the payment, Billtrust uses the same protocol to authenticate and verify the payment before authorization. To improve efficiency, the agent can perform all site authentications required by services like CAPTCHA that block bots. This allows BILL to complete the invoice on the customer’s behalf quickly, boosting market cash flow.
According to Visa SVP and Head of Product, Commercial & Money Movement Solutions, Mark Nelsen, businesses can now get the best of automation and control for payments. Nelsen said:
“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.”
Improving Trust in AI Agents
Billtrust’s SVP Payments, Kunal Patel, spoke in favor of agentic commerce. However, Patel said it can only work well if businesses can fully trust that AI agents will operate with the clarity and accountability expected of human agents. For Archana Prasad, BILL’s SVP of Payments and Financial Services, supplier portals sometimes create friction because they require manual work for things that can be automated. Prasad says that about 500,000 businesses trust BILL to move and manage their money, and that trust requires as little friction as possible, while still maintaining payment accuracy and security.
Visa adds that all three partners will continue to explore opportunities in agentic payments even as this pilot continues.
In September, Visa announced research that concludes consumer trust is moving toward agentic commerce. According to the company, only 23% of consumers in the US trust generative AI to handle payment transactions. However, confidence is improving, as 61% of respondents said they would trust Visa for these transactions. According to the Visa Trust Index, 72% of consumers have already used an AI assistant.
