Exclusive: Mastercard moves to set the rules for AI commerce
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Mastercard is moving to write the rules for agentic commerce, working closely with Google and Microsoft — two companies racing to define how AI reaches checkout.
Why it matters: As AI agents start shopping and paying on consumers' behalf, the power shift isn't about smarter models — it's about who controls trust, identity and payments when machines spend people's money.
Driving the news: Mastercard is expanding its agentic commerce push and deepening partnerships with Google and Microsoft around agent standards and AI-driven checkout, the company shared exclusively with Axios on Tuesday.
- The payments giant is positioning itself as the infrastructure layer beneath AI shopping, focusing on standards, identity and secure payments as agent-driven commerce begins moving from experimentation to real transactions.
Zoom in: Mastercard is working with Google and other shopping standards groups to help AI agents and merchants work together safely at scale.
- Checkout: Mastercard Agent Pay is being integrated into Microsoft's Copilot Checkout as well as OpenAI's Instant Checkout program in ChatGPT, with the goal of supporting secure, intent-verified payments within AI shopping flows.
- Startups: Mastercard is rebuilding its Start Path program to focus on startups developing AI-powered payment, identity and intent-verification tools.
What they're saying: "Agentic commerce will only scale at the speed of trust," Sherri Haymond, Mastercard's executive vice president of global digital commercialization, told Axios.
- Haymond said Mastercard's role is to provide the foundation beneath AI shopping — "setting the rules, integrating the rails and accelerating the ecosystem so that legitimate, intelligent agents can transact safely, seamlessly and at scale."
Between the lines: Sabrina Tharani, senior vice president of global fintech programs at Mastercard, said the company expects agentic commerce to be shaped by ecosystems, not single platforms.
- "We believe that no single company is going to define the agentic economy," Tharani said.
Yes, but: AI shopping is early and moving fast. It's still an open question whether consumers are ready to let machines handle their purchases.
What we're watching: Whether AI agents gain real traction at checkout — and which retailers move fastest to accommodate them.
