Visa, BILL and Billtrust start a live pilot where an AI agent pays approved supplier invoices
1 · What happened
Still a trial: The companies say the pilot is live and processing real end-to-end payments for some BILL buyers paying Billtrust suppliers (announced 20 Oct 2026). The agent doesn't decide what to pay: it only pays invoices the buyer already approved, using a card token instead of a shared login. No numbers yet on how many invoices it has paid or how much time it saves (the companies' own announcement).
These numbers come from the builder and haven't been checked independently.
BILL, Visa and Billtrust (@billcom) · Oct 2026 · Source: x.com ↗
2 · How it works, in plain words
BILL, the accounts payable software, has a Payment Agent that now pays supplier invoices the business has already approved. It logs into the supplier's payment portal on the buyer's behalf, using Visa's system for proving an AI agent is trusted, so nobody has to type in card details or share a portal login. Billtrust, which runs those supplier portals, recognises the agent and accepts the payment.
3 · Setup steps
How to do it yourself
Our suggested steps. The company didn't publish theirs.
- 1
Keep the approval step with a person. In this pilot the agent only pays invoices someone already approved.
- 2
List the suppliers who make you pay through their own website portal. These are the payments that still need someone to log in and type card details.
- 3
If you already use BILL, ask them whether your suppliers are in the Payment Agent pilot. Don't hand any AI tool your portal logins or card numbers to copy this yourself.
- 4
Until agents like this are widely available, use AI for the earlier steps: reading invoices, matching them to orders, and drafting the approval list.
- 5
Check every payment the agent makes against your approved list each week, and keep the receipts with the invoice.
4 · The prompt
The instructions to give the AI
Paste this into your AI tool, swap the [brackets] for your details, and test it on a few real examples.
This is one part of the setup. It won't connect to your phone, inbox or other apps on its own; the steps above cover that.
Agent instructions (prompt)
You prepare supplier payments for [Company]. You never pay anything yourself. Each [day of week], look at the invoices marked approved in [AP tool or spreadsheet]. For each one, list: supplier, invoice number, amount, due date, and how the supplier wants to be paid (bank transfer, card, or their own portal). Group the list by payment method. Put portal payments at the top, with the portal web address. Flag anything that looks wrong: an invoice that isn't marked approved, an amount different from the approved amount, a duplicate invoice number, or new bank details. End with the total to pay this week and the flagged items. Don't log into any portal or enter any payment details.
[Highlighted] = replace with your own details before you run it.
What you should get back: A weekly list like: '14 approved invoices, $23,480 total. 5 are portal payments (links listed). Flagged: 1 duplicate invoice number from [Supplier], 1 supplier with new bank details.'
Written by Quickly and Good, inspired by this case.
More detail: tools, prices and what you'll need
The company used: BILL Payment Agent
You could use: BILL (accounts payable) + Visa Trusted Agent Protocol + supplier portals run on Billtrust
Prices from each tool's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026.
What you'll need
- ☐An accounts payable tool where a person approves invoices (here BILL)
- ☐A list of suppliers you pay through their portals
- ☐A way to pay with card tokens rather than shared logins (here Visa's Trusted Agent Protocol)
- ☐A person who checks the payments each week
Can I do this myself?
Not something to build yourself: letting an AI agent enter card details on supplier websites is exactly what this pilot was set up to do safely. If you use BILL, ask about it. Otherwise, use AI to prepare and check the payment list, and keep paying by hand.
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