Mastercard Expands Agentic Suite to Help Merchants Scale AI Shopping

Mastercard has expanded its agentic AI offering for merchants and introduced a new solution to help businesses scale AI shopping experiences. The company's updated Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants enables businesses to incorporate agent-powered shopping experiences into their eCommerce platforms. This allows consumers to rely on AI-powered assistants for product discovery, comparison, and decision-making.

Mastercard emphasizes that merchants must provide product information, including details, pricing, availability, and fulfillment options, for AI agents to access and act upon.

Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants was initially launched in January to assist businesses in preparing for agentic commerce through services such as the company's AI consulting. In addition to the updated suite, Mastercard has introduced Mastercard Agent Connect, a platform that connects merchants, AI agents, digital platforms, and payment providers through a single integration.

This solution aims to help merchants engage in AI-powered commerce, maintain control over how their products and services are represented, and support trusted, user-authorized transactions.

The release highlights that with the new shopping agent capabilities and access to Agent Connect, Mastercard's Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants will enable merchants to implement agentic commerce, prepare product information for AI discovery, and establish connections with participating third-party agents. Furthermore, Mastercard can assist merchants in preparing for secure agentic transactions using Mastercard Agent Pay.

Recent PYMNTS Intelligence research indicates that merchants are investing in agentic commerce primarily to build demand while controlling payments and pricing. Notably, 46% of merchants expressed reluctance to let AI agents handle pricing and the final price a customer pays. The study also reveals that 31% of merchants plan to invest in automated product search and comparison within a year, while 26% prefer to invest in completing checkout on behalf of consumers.

Meanwhile, a significant portion of merchants, 48%, deem capabilities such as multi-merchant bundling, autonomous checkout, or dispute management as either "later" or "never" options.