Mastercard and competitor Visa are developing systems for "agentic commerce." This initiative allows consumers to use AI agents to search, compare, and complete purchases.
The move represents a strategic effort to adapt to the next major shift in global shopping. Executives believe this transition will be more disruptive than the initial move to e-commerce, framing it as moving from a "digital commerce" world to an "intelligent commerce" world.
Mastercard spent the past year building the necessary infrastructure and partnerships to enable secure payment processing within chat platforms. The company has completed pilot programs for these AI-driven transactions.
This strategy involves close collaboration with AI companies, including OpenAI, to integrate seamless payment solutions directly into AI-powered chat interfaces. Mastercard anticipates the technology will become available to consumers in 2026. The company currently has no market reaction analysis available for this strategic announcement.