Mastercard has introduced Mastercard Agent Connect and expanded Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants, giving businesses new tools to build AI-powered shopping experiences, make products discoverable across AI ecosystems, and support consumer-authorized agentic transactions.
The new capabilities are designed to help merchants participate as commerce increasingly moves beyond traditional websites and apps toward AI agents that can discover products, research options, assemble carts and complete purchases on behalf of consumers.
Mastercard Agent Suite for Merchants allows businesses to integrate agent-powered shopping experiences directly into their existing e-commerce environments.
The platform is designed to support product discovery, research and consumer-authorized purchases while allowing merchants to maintain control over areas including pricing, fulfillment, customer relationships, branding and business rules.
Mastercard is also launching Agent Connect, a single integration point that connects participating merchants, AI agents, digital platforms, commerce services, and payment providers.
The company said the approach is intended to reduce the growing complexity businesses may otherwise face as they attempt to connect separately with multiple AI platforms and agent ecosystems.
Merchants using Agent Connect can determine which AI experiences they want to participate in and how their products and services are presented.
Mastercard said the infrastructure will be supported by enterprise governance, monitoring and controls intended to help businesses maintain oversight as AI agents increasingly participate in commerce.
The expanded Agent Suite for Merchants builds on Mastercard Agent Suite, which was introduced in January 2026 and provides businesses with capabilities including AI consulting.
New functionality will help merchants prepare product information for AI discovery, connect with third-party agents and prepare for secure agentic transactions through Mastercard Agent Pay.
Mastercard is also expanding its work with AI companies including Anthropic.
Through Agent Suite for Merchants, Mastercard plans to make Anthropic’s commerce agent blueprint available to businesses, enabling them to develop shopping agents using Claude models while integrating Mastercard capabilities spanning commerce intelligence, controls, personalization and payments.
The goal is to let merchants create AI shopping experiences on their own websites and applications rather than relying exclusively on external AI marketplaces or platforms.
Product discovery represents another major component of Mastercard’s agentic commerce strategy.
As consumers increasingly use AI assistants to compare products and determine what to purchase, merchants need structured product information that agents can access and interpret.
Agent Suite for Merchants enables businesses to make merchant-defined information including product descriptions, pricing, availability and fulfillment options accessible across participating AI models, platforms and agent experiences.
Mastercard said merchants will retain control over how that information can be used, represented and acted upon.
Companies and commerce technology providers planning to use Agent Suite for Merchants include Castlery, Fabrick, Fiserv Merchant Solutions, FreedomPay, Getnet, Global Payments, Moneris, Nexi, Trip.com and Worldline.
Agent Connect is designed to support multiple stages of an AI-powered shopping journey.
Participating agents can discover merchant-provided catalog information, recommend products and build carts, confirm final pricing and associated costs such as taxes and shipping, and ultimately complete transactions using secure payment credentials from any network.
For Mastercard transactions, Agent Connect can work with Mastercard Agent Pay, which uses Verifiable Intent to help confirm that a transaction reflects the consumer’s authorization.
Mastercard said network-agnostic tokenization capabilities could also become available to participating agents in the future.
The company is beginning the Agent Connect rollout in the United States.
Technology companies and platforms exploring integrations include Bemobi, Getnet, Glance, Global Payments, Planet, Network International, Nexi, Samsung, Trip.com, Vodafone Egypt and Wizard.
Mastercard is also working with firmly to help businesses using Agent Connect extend product catalogs and shopping experiences.
Agent Connect is expected to gain additional functionality over time as agentic commerce develops and merchant requirements evolve.
Mastercard’s broader strategy is to provide infrastructure connecting merchants with AI agents while applying established payments concepts such as security, interoperability, authorization and governance to a new commerce interface.
The company operates across more than 200 countries and territories and is positioning its global payments network as infrastructure that can help support transactions as AI agents become more directly involved in shopping.
KEY QUOTE:
“The internet connected people to businesses. Mobile put those businesses in everyone’s pocket. AI agents will change the buying interface again, shifting commerce from search and discovery to checkout and disputes. We’re helping businesses prepare for that future while keeping them in control of their destiny through the same principles that have always made commerce work at scale: trust, interoperability, security and reach.”
Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard
“Agentic commerce only works at scale if agents can move seamlessly from intent to accurate, real-time product information and ultimately to a transaction. Firmly provides the catalog and cart orchestration layer that connects those pieces. Through our work with Mastercard, we’re making it simpler for merchants to meaningfully participate in agentic commerce.”
Kumar Senthil, CEO and co-founder of firmly
