Visa plugs its payment network into ChatGPT, letting AI agents shop and pay for users

Betting that people will soon grow more comfortable having artificial intelligence agents shop for groceries, plane tickets, or diapers on their behalf, payments giant Visa said that it has embedded its payment network inside ChatGPT, empowering the chatbot to independently shop and complete transactions. It means AI agents cannot only recommend products but also complete the purchase on the user's behalf at potentially any merchant that accepts Visa. The payment network's previous attempts at this technological leap were confined to a single retailer or a small set of enrolled merchants. It is not OpenAI's first attempt at e-commerce. Late last year, the company announced Instant Checkout, which allowed ChatGPT to scour the internet for a specific item like a digital personal shopper. But the process was prone to errors and was not widely adopted by merchants due to the fee that OpenAI was charging merchants. The company retired Instant Checkout in March. Visa's collaboration is different from OpenAI's previous attempts, as it will allow users to link their Visa cards to ChatGPT to shop and make it easier for merchants to accept transactions initiated by agents. OpenAI will provide the technology to allow agents to interact, make decisions, and initiate purchases through ChatGPT. Visa, the world's largest payment network outside of China, will provide the payment authorization and fraud monitoring needed to do this at scale. "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. Visa and OpenAI did not disclose the financial terms of the collaboration and did not give details on the fees merchants or customers would have to pay. This article was provided by The Associated Press.