Mastercard opens Agent Connect so merchants reach AI shopping agents through a single integration

Mastercard launched Agent Connect, a service through which merchants, AI agents, platforms and payment providers transact over one integration, and upgraded its Agent Suite for Merchants so businesses can expose pricing, availability and fulfilment data to models and agent surfaces while keeping control of how they are represented. An agent can search a participating merchant's catalogue, build a cart and move the shopper to payment, with the purchase completing only on explicit customer authorisation via Mastercard Agent Pay.

The initial network starts in the United States and includes Nexi, Global Payments, Planet, Network International, Bemobi, Getnet, Glance, Samsung, Trip.com, Vodafone Egypt, Wizard and Wompi.

Two of Europe's largest acquirers, Nexi and Global Payments, plus Planet, are in the launch network, which means European merchant portfolios are being wired into agentic checkout by their existing acquirer rather than by a separate integration. For acquirers this is a defensive move: if agents route commerce, whoever owns the merchant connection keeps the transaction.

PYMNTS research cited alongside the launch shows the appetite is still cautious, with 46 percent of merchants least willing to hand pricing decisions to agents and only 31 percent planning automated-checkout investment inside a year.

When Agent Connect extends from the United States into European acquiring portfolios, and whether Visa's competing agentic programme pulls the same acquirers in.

• pymnts.com
• Digital Transactions on the launch network