Mastercard, Visa Redefine Trust in Agentic Transactions

Leading credit card networks Visa and Mastercard have each introduced new solutions this week that aim to bring simplicity and security to merchants as they navigate the emerging frontier of agentic commerce.

Agentic commerce can be an exciting innovation to consumers who want to streamline their shopping habits with a tool that can anticipate their needs and make purchases on their behalf.

Though some people may not feel comfortable turning their payment information over to an AI agent and giving it authority to complete transactions, the idea is catching on with many others.

A report from the Boston Consulting Group reveals that more than 50% of consumers expect to use an AI assistant while shopping before the year draws to a close. 

As more people make the move to add AI agents into their shopping plans, merchants that don’t align with the shift risk losing sales to their more-prepared competitors.

More than 50% of surveyed consumers plan to use AI assistants while shopping by year’s end.

But many businesses are likely to have more than a few questions about AI in commerce. For example, merchants may wonder what steps they can take to confirm an AI agent isn’t a malicious bot or how they can tell whether an AI agent is attempting to make a purchase authorized by a consumer.

The new solutions from Visa and Mastercard can help merchants get their operations up to speed so they don’t miss a beat on the agentic commerce front.

Mastercard calls its new program the Mastercard Agent Pay Acceptance Framework.

“We know merchants are busy,” the company said in a press release announcing the tool. “Our framework enables their secure participation, with scalability and ubiquity, without demanding significant development or integration from them.”

Throughout 2025, Mastercard has been engaging with partners to establish the groundwork for agentic commerce. And the card network has used partner input to inform the development of its acceptance framework, Mastercard said in the release. 

Dealing with online payment fraud can be a frustrating and expensive undertaking for merchants. One way businesses can help prevent fraud is by knowing who their customers are, which is a task that can get more challenging when a consumer is represented by an AI agent.

The Mastercard Agent Pay Acceptance Framework takes steps to meet that challenge by registering and verifying AI agents prior to allowing them to transact on the company’s network. 

The framework employs agentic tokens that not only enable the tracking and authenticating of purchases AI agents make but also secure the credentials involved in a transaction.

Visa calls its new program for AI commerce Trusted Agent Protocol. The biggest card network in the U.S. in terms of purchase volume is releasing the protocol at a critical time.

In the U.S., traffic to retail websites from AI-driven sources has increased a whopping 4,700% over the past year, according to Visa’s press release announcing Trusted Agent Protocol.

The release also reveals the extent to which AI has been a hit with consumers lately, disclosing that 85% of people who’ve made use of AI while shopping say it made their experience better.

Trusted Agent Protocol aims to help merchants overcome the obstacles that can accompany working with AI agents, such as systems that can block authentic agentic transactions by mistake. 

Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa, said in the company’s press release that the responsibility to make sure that businesses can trust an AI agent just as much as they do their customers lies with the entire payments ecosystem.

“For the past year, we’ve worked closely with sellers, issuers, and partners to make sure agent-initiated transactions are as seamless and secure as any payment today,” Forestell said. 

Visa said in its release that it gained insightful feedback from partners such as Microsoft and Worldpay while building its new protocol.

“Our new agent protocol is focused on creating no-code functionality for merchants to securely identify agents with an intent to buy and provide a better payments and personalized experience for its known users,” Forestell added. 

Advances in artificial intelligence have allowed the technology to impact many corners of society. 

Financial institutions are finding novel ways to incorporate AI into their business processes, which can allow them to realize greater efficiencies and cost savings.

Bank of America recently rolled out an AI-powered assistant to its payments team that the bank believes has the potential to save many thousands of employee hours per year. 

Consumers can decide for themselves whether using an AI agent will make their lives more convenient.

But merchants may not have a choice. When it comes to agentic commerce, businesses that choose not to accept payments from AI agents may see their sales figures decline.

The study from Boston Consulting Group indicates that 68% of global retailers say they believe AI agents will manage the majority of their interactions with customers in five years.

Retailers around the world believe that AI agents will manage many of their interactions with customers before the end of the decade.

Accepting payments from an AI agent may not be something a merchant wants to rush into without understanding the risks involved. But business owners, who can often spend their days attending to matters they didn’t anticipate working on when the day began, may not feel equipped to fully grasp the implications of making sales to AI agents.

That’s why the new solutions from Mastercard and Visa may be just what many merchants need to find success in an evolving economy. Businesses can leverage the resources the card networks are providing to bring more security to their sales processes and gain more confidence in a technology that is relatively new to them.

“By setting the standards today, Mastercard is ensuring that the commerce of tomorrow is built on a foundation of trust,” the company said in its press release.