Visa is handling AI-prompted transactions for OpenAI – but can you trust it?

A new partnership between Visa and OpenAI takes the next step in AI-led purchasing. Here’s what an expert wants you to know.

Agentic commerce is a rapidly growing frontier of AI for consumers and businesses, reiterated by Google's recent launch of Universal Cart at I/O in May. This week, Visa and OpenAI further solidified that infrastructure — but how reliable are AI agents when it comes to making purchases? On Wednesday, the two companies announced a partnership to provide Visa-protected agentic transactions within OpenAI and effectively "bring agentic commerce into the mainstream," as Visa said in its release. Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol, among its other authorization and security layers, will integrate with OpenAI interfaces, like Atlas and ChatGPT Shopping, and allow developers and merchants to accept payments from agents.  (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET's parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.) "Transactions operate inside guardrails that the consumer or business sets: spending limits, required approval thresholds, and other permission layers that keep the buyer in command even when an agent is executing the work," Visa explained.  For consumers, this looks like letting agents do your shopping research (complete with pre-set personalizations) and make routine purchases you feel comfortable enough to automate. For merchants, the idea is still that a more seamless buying experience across more AI-powered surfaces, where consumers increasingly are, appeals to new buyers. Also: How small businesses can survive AI shopping: 7 essential steps Visa's announcement also mentioned the partnership would apply to "OpenAI's expanding suite of AI-powered products," though it did not specify any involvement with the company's forthcoming "superapp" when ZDNET asked.  "The goal is to make agentic commerce more accessible, trusted, and secure for consumers and businesses worldwide," the company continued, citing its Intelligent Commerce platform as the foundation for the partnership.  Major financial players embracing agentic commerce isn't new. OpenAI has been developing its agentic commerce arm in earnest since it launched Instant Checkout, which uses the company's Agentic Commerce Protocol, developed with Stripe, to allow merchants to securely approve transactions through ChatGPT.  At the time, ACP was joining Google's Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) and other similar launches that tried to make agentic commerce appear more secure and appealing. Also on Wednesday, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines, which aims to scale and speed up transactions between agents.  Also: I let ChatGPT Atlas do my Walmart shopping for me – here's how the AI browser agent did