Visa is partnering with OpenAI to enable secure, AI-driven payments across agentic commerce workflows, the company announced Wednesday at the Visa Payments Forum in San Francisco.

As part of the partnership, Visa’s global payment network, tokenization and security infrastructure will be integrated into OpenAI systems to support trusted, agent-initiated transactions.

“AI will transform commerce more profoundly than the internet or mobile technology ever did,” Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, said in a statement. He said Visa’s goal is to maintain trust, security and seamless transaction experiences as AI agents increasingly take part in economic activity.

The initiative is part of Visa’s Intelligent Commerce program targeting expanding payments into AI-driven environments.

“Commerce is going to happen in many more places and in many more ways than it does today, and agents will play an increasingly important role in helping people complete tasks that involve money,” Marco Mahrus, head of partnerships for commerce at OpenAI, said. “By integrating with Visa Intelligent Commerce, we’re building the infrastructure for secure, transparent, and user-controlled agentic transactions, helping people do more with AI agents while maintaining confidence that payments are being handled safely and securely.”

Visa said transactions will be governed by user-defined permissions, including spending limits and approval requirements, and secured through tokenized credentials and real-time fraud monitoring.

The partnership is intended to help developers and enterprises build AI-powered commerce experiences where agents can transact safely and autonomously within defined parameters.

Visa teams with AI firms to enable secure agent-led transactions

Visa Intelligent Commerce is a framework that allows AI agents to discover, select and purchase products using Visa’s payment network. The program was announced at the Visa Global Product Drop last year to support the next generation of AI-driven shopping experiences.

The company said AI-powered agents will act on behalf of consumers to manage purchases and transactions, while remaining governed by user-defined permissions and spending controls.

In addition to OpenAI, the initiative is backed by partnerships with other major AI and technology companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Anthropic, Samsung and Stripe, and aims to deliver more secure and personalized commerce in an AI-powered economy.