Mastercard expects AI shopping agents to drive more purchases this holiday season

Mastercard's chief executive says AI shopping tools are leading to more card purchases, and he expects that to grow as the holidays arrive. Michael Miebach made the comments Thursday on a call about the company's September-quarter results. He also warned that many merchants are not yet set up for this new way of shopping.

What agentic commerce means

Agentic commerce lets shoppers hand a software agent, a small piece of code, the job of searching the Web for products they want. Miebach said this shift means more transactions for Mastercard. A debate is under way over whether these agents should be allowed to complete the purchase once they find an item, or only be used to find products.

Many merchants are not ready

Miebach said merchants need to be discoverable, meaning AI agents must be able to find them, and not all are. He described a "wide, wide spectrum" of readiness and said the industry is a patchwork. Mastercard launched Agent Suite in January and added Agent Connect late this summer to help merchants. He expects outside payment-service providers to be "absolutely critical" in helping merchants understand the technology, not just install it.

The fraud concern

Miebach said AI is also in the hands of fraudsters, which pushed Mastercard deeper into cybersecurity. Last year it bought Recorded Future, a risk intelligence company, for $2.65 billion. Mastercard also closed a $1.8 billion deal in August for BVNK, a company that builds technology for stablecoins. Stablecoins are digital money designed to hold a steady value, backed by money such as the U.S. dollar.

The business numbers

For the quarter, Mastercard reported $9.81 billion in net revenue, up 14% from a year earlier. Net income rose 17% to $4.65 billion. Global gross dollar volume, the total spent on its cards, rose 7% to $2.95 trillion. Cards carrying the Mastercard and Maestro brands totaled 3.8 billion, up 5%.

What store owners can do

The material does not say how many purchases AI agents now make or how many merchants are ready. It does suggest that being easy for these tools to find and pay could matter more soon. Questions worth putting to a payment provider:

• What tools do you offer to help AI shopping agents find my store?
• Do you support Mastercard's Agent Suite or Agent Connect?
• How do you protect my store from fraud that uses AI?