Crystal ball: Visa recently unveiled six new tools aimed at modernizing dispute management. Each relies on some form of AI or large language model, which the company says can turn what has long been a complex, costly process into a potential source of revenue. The push spans the entire payments ecosystem, targeting both merchants and intermediaries.
Despite being the default for global e-commerce, digital payments still require a degree of "human touch" when disputes and complaints arise. That friction is becoming a growing cost center as online transactions scale, and Visa argues that shifting to AI-managed dispute handling could streamline the process, cut losses, and turn a long-standing pain point into a new source of revenue.
Disputes are rising. In 2025, Visa processed 106 million cases, a 35% increase compared to 2019. Analysts at IDC note that dispute resolution has traditionally been labor-intensive, involving fragmented workflows and significant manual review. By repositioning it as a strategic priority and applying AI, the industry could recover revenue through more efficient, modernized processes.
For merchants, Visa is introducing Dispute Resolution Network, Dispute Recovery Manager, and Order Insight. Dispute Resolution Network focuses on the pre-dispute phase, aiming to resolve issues before they escalate. Dispute Recovery Manager uses GenAI to automate responses to customers, while Order Insight surfaces transaction details to quickly identify legitimate charges.
Financial institutions acting as issuers and acquirers will get access to three additional tools: Dispute Intelligence, Dispute Doc Analyzer, and Dispute Case Manager.
Dispute Intelligence applies predictive AI models, combined with Visa's global transaction network, to help agents make more informed decisions. Dispute Doc Analyzer summarizes merchant documents and generates a structured set of key data points – ideally without hallucinations.
Dispute Case Manager, meanwhile, is designed to unify fragmented workflows into a single platform, supporting multiple card networks from intake through resolution. Visa said most of these tools will roll out throughout 2026.
The financial corporation has long positioned itself as an advocate for AI in payments, including earlier efforts to develop autonomous agents capable of making purchases on users' behalf. Those initiatives have yet to gain widespread traction. Visa is now betting that dispute automation – arguably a more immediate and practical use case – will deliver clearer value.
According to Andrew Torre, Visa's President of Value-Added Services, the new and "expanded suite of dispute services gives clients the visibility they need to focus on what matters most: serving customers, launching new products and growing their businesses."