Visa is connecting with ChatGPT to let AI agents automatically make purchases

Is it too time-consuming for you to search for and buy products you need on the internet? ChatGPT and Visa have a solution.

OpenAI and Visa, the world's largest non-Chinese payment network, have worked to integrate Visa into ChatGPT, per the Associated Press. Thanks to this integration, users can now have ChatGPT operate as a shopping agent of sorts, scouring the internet for products based on natural-language queries and making purchases on the user's behalf.

“As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa's focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure, and seamless,” said Visa executive Jack Forestell.

To get an idea of how this works, one example given involved asking ChatGPT to find a new pair of headphones under a certain price threshold. Ideally, the chatbot would quickly search the internet for one, present options to the user, and complete the purchase if the user asks it to. According to Visa, some of the guardrails in place to prevent fraud or out-of-control spending include spending limits and a list of approved merchants, in addition to the basic requirement of user approval.

If you trust AI to make purchases for you, this could be a godsend. If you don't, well, nobody is making you use it.