Visa, BILL and Billtrust pilot AI agents for invoice payments

The companies said the pilot is live and processing end-to-end transactions with participating buyers using BILL and Billtrust suppliers.[1] It allows BILL to automate card payments for supplier invoices, with the agent executing only eligible payments already approved by the buyer.[1][2] The companies described it as the first live pilot of its kind.[1] The announcement is dated October 20, 2026.[1] This is a pilot with participating buyers, not evidence of a broadly available service.[1]

BILL’s Payment Agent is registered through Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol and Agentic Directory.[1] It uses tokenized payment credentials and controls aligned with the buyer’s approved instructions, rather than shared supplier-portal logins.[1] The payment path is tied to the particular invoice being paid, and the pilot includes visibility into authorization and completion.[1] Billtrust uses the protocol to recognize and authenticate the authorized agent and grant it access.[1] The companies say this authentication can meet protections such as CAPTCHA without requiring an additional agent login.[1]

The pilot’s design combines buyer approval, payment controls and tokenized credentials; the companies say they are testing how identity and transaction visibility can make the model work.[1] The pilot does not override a merchant’s policy, and the Trusted Agent Protocol works only at merchants or their software providers that have adopted it.[3] That means a finance team considering this approach would need to account for supplier-side adoption as well as its own payment approvals. The evidence describes participating buyers and suppliers, but does not provide a broader rollout date or pricing.[1]

BILL says automating the manual portal step can return time finance teams spend entering payment information.[1] Billtrust says the pilot could help suppliers release trapped cash while retaining information needed to process and reconcile payments under existing policies.[2] The companies also say buyer-side platforms such as BILL could extend card-payment opportunities to suppliers that have mainly relied on ACH or checks for automated payments.[2] Billtrust says trusted-agent payments could help suppliers improve Days Sales Outstanding.[2] These are stated potential benefits, not reported pilot outcomes.