Mastercard is expanding its AI commerce tools with Agent Connect. The platform links merchants, AI agents, digital platforms and payment providers through one integration for shopping and payments.
Mastercard Agent Connect Links Merchants With AI Shopping
Mastercard Agent Connect provides merchants a single connection for AI-driven shopping across the various platforms. The service provides product discovery, cart creation, and consumer-approved payments.
Therefore, merchants can reduce the need to build separate connections for each participating AI platform. Businesses can also provide current prices, product details and availability through their existing catalogs.
Meanwhile, merchants keep control over branding, pricing and customer relationships. The system is created by Mastercard to ensure that businesses remain engaged during the entire AI shopping experience.
Agent Connect is also integrated with Mastercard’s broader Agent Suite for Merchants. The company intends to integrate payment services with the AI shopping services via the same commerce platform.
Mastercard Expands Agent Suite for Merchants
The updated Agent Suite supports product searches, comparisons, recommendations and checkout within merchant-controlled digital channels. Moreover, businesses can use AI agents to support order tracking, refunds and returns.
Mastercard is also working with Anthropic on commerce tools for merchants. Businesses can use Anthropic’s commerce agent blueprint with Claude models and Mastercard payment capabilities.
As a result, merchants can build AI shopping agents while maintaining control over their digital storefronts. The tools focus on connecting product discovery with authorized purchases.
Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said, “AI agents will change the buying interface again.” He added that Mastercard wants businesses to retain control as AI changes online shopping.
Agent Pay Adds Controls for AI Transactions
Mastercard Agent Pay enables payments made by the AI agents when they are authorized by customers. The system verifies agent’s permission to buy with a tokenized permission.
Additionally, Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines, which enables automatic transactions between software applications. The service enables payment of small amounts of money regularly, whether on Card or stablecoin.
More than 30 companies support Mastercard’s machine-payment initiative. Participants include Stripe, Coinbase, Adyen, Checkout, Cloudflare, OKX and Global Payments.
However, Mastercard continues to expand the technology through partnerships and merchant testing. The company is positioning Agent Connect alongside its existing payment network as AI-driven commerce develops.
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