Mastercard wants AI bots to handle your online shopping. Here’s what that could mean

Mastercard is teaming up with Microsoft and a few big names in AI to change how online shopping works. The company just announced its new initiative, called Agent Pay, which lets AI agents make purchases and handle payments on your behalf.

The idea isn’t theoretical. It’s already in motion. Mastercard says the program uses what it calls agentic payments technology—essentially letting trusted AI agents act like digital assistants that can shop, compare prices, and check out for you. No more abandoned carts. No more last-minute “Do I really need this?” moments. Just tell your AI what you want, and it handles the rest.

Mastercard Launches Agent Pay to Power AI-Driven Commerce

Mastercard is teaming up with Microsoft and other top AI companies to let AI agents shop and pay for consumers, Bloomberg reported.

As part of the new program, shoppers could ask an AI assistant, like Microsoft’s Copilot, to find a specific item, such as a pair of yellow running shoes in their size. The AI would search for options, recommend the best picks, and even complete the purchase, suggesting the most efficient payment method along the way, Mastercard said in a statement Tuesday.

“Under the new program, a shopper could prompt an AI agent — Microsoft’s Copilot, for example — to search for a pair of yellow running shoes in a particular size. The agent would then search and offer the customer options, and then be able to make the purchase while also recommending the best way to pay,” Bloomberg reported.

AI Agents That Shop on Your Behalf

Mastercard’s Agent Pay aims to reshape how commerce happens through AI. The platform taps into agentic AI to create faster, safer, and more personalized payment experiences for consumers, merchants, and issuers.

What Agent Pay Actually Does

At the heart of Agent Pay is an AI-powered system that can follow instructions, scan online stores, and make transactions—all while keeping your data protected. The agents rely on tokenization, which replaces your real payment info with unique digital IDs. So even if the transaction passes through multiple platforms, your sensitive data stays hidden.

This builds on Mastercard’s work in AI fraud detection. According to a CNBC report earlier this year, the company’s AI system, Decision Intelligence Pro, helped banks detect fraud up to three times better. Agent Pay takes this a step further by vetting the AI agents themselves, filtering out any that raise red flags.

And Mastercard isn’t going at this alone. Microsoft, which is pouring $80 billion into AI infrastructure this fiscal year, is helping support the tech backbone. IBM is also on board, bringing its AI tools and security chops to the table.

“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, including new merchant interfaces to distinguish trusted agents from bad actors using agentic technology. Recognizing the seismic implications of this evolution, we are keen to collaborate with industry players to advance the standards for agentic payments, such as applying the Model Context Protocol to Secure Remote Commerce. This lays the foundation for scale and builds trust in agentic commerce.”

What It Means for Consumers

Let’s say you’re in the market for a new laptop. Instead of comparing specs, checking reviews, and clicking through a dozen sites, you could give your AI agent a list of preferences—budget, performance, preferred brands—and it would do the legwork. It can even complete the purchase without you lifting another finger.

The promise here is speed and ease. These AI agents can learn your habits, remember your preferences, and offer better results each time. Want to only shop from eco-conscious brands? Or filter out anything over $500? The agent will factor that in.

What It Means for Merchants

For online sellers, Agent Pay could mean fewer cart abandonments and smoother checkouts. If an AI agent is handling the transaction, the friction that usually causes buyers to drop off disappears. Plus, Mastercard’s fraud systems—already analyzing over 143 billion transactions a year—would add a layer of protection for sellers, too.

But it’s not all upside. There are still big questions about how much control people will hand over to AI agents. Mastercard says it’s sticking to strict data and AI governance policies, but the idea of bots shopping on your behalf is bound to raise concerns about security, privacy, and how much power these agents should really have.

Where This Fits in the Bigger Picture

This isn’t just a Mastercard experiment. Visa is making similar moves, deploying its own large language models across products to help process nearly 280 billion transactions annually. Tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft are spending tens of billions on AI infrastructure to keep up.

Mastercard alone has invested over $7 billion in cybersecurity and AI in the past five years, training its systems on 125 billion transactions a year to catch fraud with more precision. This gives them a head start as the idea of AI-managed payments moves from fringe to mainstream.

What Comes Next

There’s still a long road ahead. Rolling this out globally means syncing with different payment platforms, staying compliant with local regulations, and keeping the tech secure from bad actors. Getting everyday users—and businesses—to trust these systems will be just as important as building them.

One more thing: ethical AI matters here. Mastercard says it’s focused on making sure the data these agents use doesn’t lead to biased or faulty decisions. That’ll be key as these tools start to make more financial decisions on behalf of their users.

In short, Agent Pay could reshape online commerce if consumers buy into the idea—and if the infrastructure holds up.