Mastercard has announced the launch of Mastercard Agent Pay, a groundbreaking solution that integrates agentic AI with the company’s trusted payment technologies to redefine how consumers and businesses transact in the digital age.

As artificial intelligence becomes an integral part of daily interactions, Mastercard is enabling smarter, more secure, and more personalised payment experiences. The Agentic Payments Program introduces Mastercard Agentic Tokens, a next-generation evolution of its proven tokenisation technologies that power mobile contactless payments, card-on-file security, Mastercard Payment Passkeys, and programmable payment capabilities.

“Mastercard is transforming the way the world pays for the better by anticipating consumer needs on the horizon,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard. “The launch of Mastercard Agent Pay marks our initial steps in redefining commerce in the AI era. We are keen to collaborate with industry leaders to advance standards for agentic payments and build trust in this exciting new frontier.”

A More Seamless and Intelligent Payment Experience

Mastercard Agent Pay enables trusted AI agents to securely make payments on behalf of consumers and businesses. Whether helping a customer plan a birthday party or managing international supplier logistics for a small business, these agents use Mastercard tokens to conduct payments in a seamless, secure, and personalised manner.

Examples include:

• A shopper using an AI assistant to curate and purchase outfits tailored to an event’s style and weather conditions, complete with payment recommendations like Mastercard One Credential.
• A small enterprise using an agent to source materials, negotiate terms, and complete cross-border payments with a virtual corporate card token.
• Retailers delivering a consistent, personalised shopping experience with relevant benefits, powered by secure identity validation through Mastercard’s tokenisation technology.

Strategic Collaborations to Scale Agentic Commerce

Mastercard is collaborating with Microsoft to integrate advanced AI technologies like Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot Studio into Mastercard’s secure payment ecosystem. The company is also working with leading technology providers, including IBM, with its Watson Orchestrate platform, to drive B2B use cases. Additionally, Braintree and Checkout.com will help enhance tokenisation for merchants to support secure, transparent agentic transactions.

Setting the Standard for Responsible AI in Payments

Mastercard Agent Pay is grounded in the company’s principles of responsible innovation and consumer control, offering:

• Secure agent registration and verification
• Trusted token-based payments across conversational platforms
• Fraud protection and consumer support
• Clear permissions and transaction transparency for users

Mastercard’s cyber and authentication capabilities, including on-device biometrics and agent validation protocols, will ensure that agent-initiated transactions are secure from start to finish.

What’s Next?

As agentic commerce continues to evolve, Mastercard remains committed to shaping the future of payments with a focus on trust, scalability, and security. The company will continue to build partnerships and establish protocols to enable this next generation of commerce, ensuring all players in the ecosystem—from consumers and issuers to merchants—benefit from the possibilities of AI-powered transactions.