Agent Pay from Mastercard transforms the way enterprises use AI search

Computer use platforms and other search engines are often criticized for not allowing you to complete a transaction within the same window when you use them to locate a product or hotel.

Mastercard wants to change this by integrating AI platforms and companies into its payments network. This will enable users and businesses to transact seamlessly in their respective ecosystems. Today, the company announced Agent Payis a new payments platform that brings the Mastercard payment system to AI chat platforms.

Greg Ulrich said in an interview with VentureBeat that Agent Pay “closes” the loop on agentic searches.

Ulrich stated that “you want to close the circle within the experience so you can enable the customer experience the most effectively possible.” This is what they are trying to enable. “You need to ensure that everyone in the ecosystem is able to identify and authenticate the agents to handle the transaction securely and safely.”

OpenAI’s, Anthropic’s and Perplexity’s can join Mastercard’s payments network. This allows other network participants – merchants, card holders and financial institutions – to trust the platform’s transactions and to check for potential fraud. Mastercard can also bring its fraud and dispute systems to these companies.

Mastercard has partnered with Microsoft IBM Braintree and Checkout.com in order to scale Agent Pay and orchestrate the system. It will also integrate Agent Pay into banks and other financial institutions.

AI-powered searches have evolved over the last year from simply listing information, to actively using your computer in your behalf. These platforms allow users to ask AI models for information on the internet. It can recommend products or places to go. AI search is a popular feature. OpenAI announced this week that it has even launched its own AI search engine. ChatGPTis adding shopping features to its search engine, which runs on GPT-4o. This is in an attempt to compete with Google, who has long been the leader in product searches.

Users have always had to open a new window if they want to see a particular deal.

We’re going to work with the AI platform so that agents can get onboarded, and they can access the technology. On the merchant’s side, they can now do things to recognize these transaction and more effectively manage risk around this,” said Mastercard’s Chief Digital Officer Pablo Fourez.

By integrating these platforms into Mastercard’s payments system, they become more useful. They can be used not only to find information but also as a place for users to find and transact.

AI companies joining the payment network could improve any agentic workflow created by enterprises. Imagine an agentic work flow that includes searching for suppliers, finding the right supplier, assisting with negotiations, drafting contracts, and setting up transactions on the platform.

Microsoft is discussing the integration Agent Pay with Azure/OpenAI and Copilot services.

Tokens instead of AI

AgentPay, however, does not rely on generative AI. Mastercard uses the technology in other products. Agent Pay relies upon the company’s tokenization technologies, which use cryptography to mask personally identifiable information during digital transactions. Fourez explained that the number is useless if not used in the context of the transaction you authorized. “This is achieved through cryptography which makes each transaction unique and if anyone gets this information they can’t use it,” Fourez said.

Ulrich noted that Mastercard uses generative AI and large-language models for fraud detection. Ulrich also noted that these models work in conjunction with tokenization for Agent Pay as their AI models verify transactions once they are initiated.

Ulrich said Agent Pay allows every company and person to trust that “rules” work in the ecosystem.

We’re making sure we safely and securely identifiy these players in the eco-system, that we have a method to capture and keep the credentials securely,” He said.

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