SAN FRANCISCO, California: Visa is taking a major step toward AI-powered commerce by integrating its payment network with ChatGPT, allowing artificial intelligence agents to not only recommend products but also complete purchases on behalf of users.

The payments giant announced that consumers will be able to link their Visa cards to ChatGPT, enabling the chatbot to independently shop and pay for goods and services at merchants that accept Visa.

The move expands the role of AI agents from product discovery to completing transactions, a capability that Visa said could eventually be used for purchases ranging from groceries to airline tickets.

The partnership combines OpenAI's technology for AI-driven decision-making and purchasing with Visa's payment authorization and fraud-monitoring systems.

"As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa's focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure and seamless," said Jack Forestell, chief product and strategy officer at Visa.

The collaboration follows OpenAI's earlier attempt to enter e-commerce through a feature called Instant Checkout, introduced late last year. The tool allowed ChatGPT to search for products online and assist with purchases, but it was not widely adopted by merchants and was retired in March.

Visa said its approach differs by allowing users to connect their payment cards directly to ChatGPT while giving merchants a simpler way to accept transactions initiated by AI agents.

Speaking at a company event in San Francisco, Forestell described a scenario in which a customer asks ChatGPT to find wireless headphones priced below $150. The chatbot would locate a product matching those requirements and complete the purchase on the customer's behalf.

"I think we're generally at a place where most people are very comfortable with the shopping aspects of it and have discovered this as a superior discovery experience," Forestell said in an interview. But, he added, making the leap from having AI agents recommend what to buy to doing the purchasing "just requires a whole different level of trust."

"But that all comes from the underlying infrastructure, the process, the security that we build into it and the rules," he said.

Visa and OpenAI did not disclose financial terms of the partnership or provide details on fees for merchants or consumers.

To address concerns about overspending, unauthorized purchases and fraud, Visa said the system will include safeguards such as spending limits, approval requirements and restrictions on approved merchants.

Forestell said disputes would be handled under the same core principles that govern traditional card transactions.

"Did the consumer really intend to make the purchase and did the merchant process it the correct way?" he said. Where issues arise, he added, it could involve situations where both parties acted correctly but "something happened in the middle that caused a problem."

"And that's why we're modifying our whole token framework and data capture process with Visa Intelligent Commerce to make sure that problem doesn't happen," Forestell said.

Visa's announcement comes as payment companies and retailers race to develop AI-powered shopping tools. Rival Mastercard has also been introducing AI-commerce features, including systems that allow AI agents to procure services for businesses.

Forestell acknowledged that consumer trust in AI purchasing will take time to develop and said human approval is expected to remain part of most transactions initially.

"Now, imagine you do that a thousand times over the course of some period of time," he said. "And then your agent says, 'Do you want me to just not check?'"