Visa, BILL, and Billtrust have started a live pilot in which trusted AI agents initiate and complete approved buyer invoice payments end-to-end through supplier portals. According to the official press release, the pilot is already processing transactions between participating buyers using BILL and suppliers using Billtrust.
The companies describe the initiative as the first live pilot of its kind. It relies on capabilities within the Visa Intelligent Commerce (VIC) portfolio, including Visa Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory, to allow AI agents to be securely authenticated on credentialed payment portals.
Addressing the manual step in portal payments
Many supplier payment portals have relied on human authentication requirements, which have limited how far approved payments could be automated. As a result, buyer payments made through these portals have often depended on finance staff entering payment details manually, even after an invoice has been approved.
In addition, according to Archana Prasad, SVP of Payments and Financial Services at BILL, supplier portals have been friction points, requiring a person to manually complete what should be an automated step. With Visa and Billtrust, BILL’s AI-powered payments technology aims to close that gap, enabling the payment to get done, the supplier to get paid faster, and finance teams to get their time back.
Under the model, the BILL Payment Agent is registered through Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory. The agent uses tokenised payment credentials, together with controls aligned with the buyer’s approved payment instructions, to issue card payments for supplier invoices on behalf of BILL customers.
Once a payment is initiated, Billtrust uses the same protocol to recognise, authenticate, and grant access to the authorised agent, allowing BILL to complete the invoice payment. According to the companies, this agent authentication can satisfy the site protections historically provided by CAPTCHA and other bot-blocking mechanisms, without requiring a separate agent login.
Identity, controls, and visibility
The pilot is structured around several elements: a recognised and authenticated AI agent acting for an identified buyer, tokenised credentials in place of shared supplier-portal logins, payment controls tied to the customer’s approved payment instruction, a dedicated payment path linked to the specific invoice, and visibility into the authorisation and completion of each payment.
Mark Nelsen, SVP and Head of Product, Commercial and Money Movement Solutions, Visa, said the pilot applies agentic commerce to a practical B2B payment problem and is being used to test how identity, payment controls, and transaction visibility can support agents completing payments across platforms.
Implications for buyers and suppliers
For buyers on BILL, automating the portal step removes the need for finance teams to key information into supplier systems. For suppliers on Billtrust, the pilot provides a way to recognise and accept agent-initiated payments while retaining the data required to process and reconcile them within existing acceptance policies. The companies state that receiving portal payments in line with those policies can help accelerate cash flow and release trapped cash.
Kunal Patel, SVP Payments, Billtrust, noted that agentic commerce depends on businesses being able to trust agents operating across systems with the same clarity and accountability expected of people. Through the process of linking buyer-side invoice approval with supplier-side payment acceptance, the pilot is intended to preserve visibility and control for both parties.
The initiative moves AI agents from automating internal processes towards acting on behalf of buyers and suppliers in live commercial transactions. As the pilot progresses, Visa, BILL, and Billtrust plan to continue exploring further opportunities in agentic payments.
