Mastercard has announced the launch of Mastercard Agent Pay, an innovative solution designed to lead the field of "Agentic Commerce" – e-commerce where artificial intelligence agents manage payments for users.
For example, when planning a birthday, you can now chat with an AI agent to proactively select a range of outfits and accessories from local stores and online shops based on style, the venue’s ambiance, and weather forecasts. Based on the preferences of the birthday planner, the AI commerce agent can make the purchase and process the payment smartly.
A small textile business will be able to use its AI agent to manage the entire procurement and logistics process in a smart and secure way: from finding suppliers, managing optimal payment terms, to organizing international shipments. At the end of the process, the AI agent will complete the transaction using a Mastercard virtual card while maintaining payment security. The agent can even ensure fast and cost-effective shipping – all without human touch, saving time, money, and resources.
Tokenization, Have You Heard of It?
Using Mastercard's tokenization technology for customer identification and verification, retailers will be able to offer a seamless, consistent, and personalized shopping experience. The technology will allow for the addition of layers of relevant benefits and value propositions to the customer, such as recommendations for tailored products, free shipping, rewards, and exclusive discounts – thereby improving user satisfaction and loyalty to the tool over time.
Mastercard will work with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft’s leading artificial intelligence technologies, including Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft Copilot Studio, with Mastercard's trusted payment solutions to develop and expand virtual commerce agents, responding to the evolving needs of every part of the commerce chain. The company will also collaborate with technology companies like IBM, using its watsonx Orchestrate product, to accelerate usage in B2B cases.
Additionally, Mastercard will work with payment agents and payment gateway companies like Braintree and Checkout.com to enhance tokenization capabilities they are already using with merchants to provide secure and transparent payments via these AI agents.
Based on the company’s commitment to responsible artificial intelligence, Mastercard Agent Pay will ensure that payments made through AI platforms are secure and transparent at every stage of the transaction – before, during, and after the transaction. The program will require the registration and verification of trusted AI agents, who can then process secure payments on behalf of their users.
Tokenization technology will allow payments to be made through conversational interfaces at millions of merchants of all sizes currently supporting online commerce. Every player in the value chain, from consumers to issuers and merchants, will be able to identify transactions carried out by smart agents, providing greater transparency. Consumers will have full control over what the agent is authorized to purchase on their behalf, ensuring that the payments they make are securely authorized and identified.
The company says that Mastercard’s industry-leading cybersecurity, security, and authentication capabilities will protect merchants and consumers from malicious actors end-to-end. This will include the use of AI agents to facilitate strong consumer verification leveraging device biometrics and a process that will help clarify transactions made by AI agents that may be unfamiliar or unrecognized.