Visa launched three commercial payment capabilities, including an AI-powered invoice payment pilot

On October 21, the payment network Visa announced three capabilities aimed at the growth of commercial cards, the security of virtual cards, and the automation of commercial payments in San Francisco, serving financial institutions, fintech companies, and enterprises. Darren Parslow, Global Head of Visa Commercial Solutions, stated that companies are accelerating the automation of payment-related tasks from identifying vendor opportunities to approving invoices and executing transactions. These capabilities are designed to provide the necessary data, security, and control.

The three capabilities are SESA 2.0, Visa Commercial Fraud Solutions, and a live pilot conducted with the billing platform BILL and the accounts receivable platform Billtrust. SESA 2.0 combines AI vendor scoring, Visa commercial payment data, buyer benchmarks, and business value modeling to help identify vendors more likely to accept commercial cards and estimate growth opportunities. Visa claims that since its launch, SESA has helped financial institutions discover over $600 billion in potential cardable spending.

Visa Commercial Fraud Solutions covers vendor verification, authenticating commercial virtual card users through 3-D Secure, and transaction-level controls such as spending, merchant category, location, and time. Payment controls have already been provided to eligible issuing institutions in supported countries and regions, while the other two are currently in pilot and are planned for full rollout in 2027. Visa also stated that the pilot with BILL and Billtrust has gone live, allowing trusted AI agents to initiate and assist in completing approved invoice payments through the vendor portal, using tokenized payment credentials without relying on shared vendor portal login credentials.