AI enters the procurement and payment closed loop: Visa and LianLian complete the first real B2B agent transaction in Greater China

July 24, Visa and Lianlian Digital jointly announced that they have completed the first real B2B agentic transaction executed by Lianlian’s AI agent, LoopXPay. This is also the first such transaction publicly disclosed in the Greater China region. The transaction served a small business seller. In terms of process, LoopXPay completed vendor sourcing, solution comparison, ordering, and payment within a single workflow, all operating within the business’s preset spending controls and approval parameters. The tasks undertaken by LoopXPay now go beyond recommending suppliers; it directly connects purchasing decisions with payment execution—businesses only need to set budgets, permissions, and approval conditions in advance, and the agent can complete routine purchases within the authorized scope, while the enterprise retains necessary oversight and control. For payment institutions, whether AI can complete payments is only the first step. After the agent initiates a transaction on behalf of the business, the issues of who authorizes it, the scope of authorization, whether the transaction counterpart is trustworthy, and how to trace anomalies all become new problems for the payment chain. As an important part of their cooperation, LoopXPay has been registered in Visa's Trusted Agentic Directory; This directory aims to help merchants and businesses identify verified AI agents and, in conjunction with Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, provides identity recognition, transparency, and spending control mechanisms for agentic transactions. This is equivalent to adding a layer of "identity registration" for AI agents entering the payment network: previously, payment institutions mainly verified cardholders, merchants, and devices; with agents participating in transactions, verification extends to the software entities performing tasks on behalf of businesses. However, this mechanism is still in its early stages of implementation. Based on their disclosures, information such as the transaction amount, procurement category, specific payment tools, and manual confirmation checkpoints from demand identification to final payment have not been revealed, so it’s currently impossible to assess the degree of automation and commercial replication costs. Especially in a B2B context, procurement often involves contractual terms, goods acceptance, invoice processing, and cross-border compliance—completing a single transaction proves that agents can enter procurement and payment processes, but does not mean they can yet handle complex enterprise procurement. Visa and Lianlian revealed that the next step is to expand their cooperation to areas such as procurement, digital advertising optimization, and B2B platform payments; Lianlian Digital stated that its capabilities for agentic commerce will cover identity authentication, transaction authorization, intelligent payment, and global fund settlement. From the evolution of the payments industry, AI agents previously focused more on customer service, marketing, and operations, but are now beginning to gain the ability to execute orders and move funds; the questions for payment infrastructure have shifted from “how to let AI initiate payments,” to “how to confirm its identity, how much it can spend, and who is responsible for its actions.” As AI starts to spend money on behalf of businesses, identity, authorization, and accountability mechanisms will become more important than the act of payment itself. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice nor does it take into account the specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are appropriate for their particular circumstances. Invest accordingly at your own risk.