TLDR
- Mastercard launched Agent Connect, giving merchants one integration for AI-driven product discovery, cart creation and payments across multiple platforms.
- Agent Pay uses tokenized permissions to verify customer authorization before AI agents complete purchases.
- Mastercard is working with Anthropic, integrating Claude models with its payment capabilities for merchant AI shopping agents.
- Agent Pay for Machines handles automated, low-value transactions between software applications via card or stablecoin rails.
- Over 30 companies including Stripe, Coinbase, Adyen and Cloudflare support Mastercard’s machine payment initiative.
Mastercard has launched Agent Connect, a platform that links merchants, AI agents, digital platforms and payment providers through a single integration. The announcement was made on September 9.
The next front door to commerce may be an AI agent.
Today, we're introducing Mastercard Agent Connect and expanding Agent Suite for Merchants to help businesses build, connect, and scale AI-powered shopping experiences.
Learn more about how we're powering the future of commerce… pic.twitter.com/VE1OvdRue4— Mastercard (@Mastercard) September 9, 2026
The tool allows merchants to participate in AI-assisted shopping without building separate technical connections for every AI platform they want to reach.
Through Agent Connect, an AI agent can search a merchant’s product catalog, build a cart and move toward checkout. The final purchase only goes through once the customer gives authorization.
Merchants can feed Agent Connect their existing catalogs, keeping prices, product details and stock levels current. That matters because an AI agent may recommend a product or prepare an order without the shopper ever landing on a traditional product page.
Mastercard said merchants retain control over their branding, pricing and customer relationships throughout the process. The company designed the service to keep businesses involved from the first search to the completed transaction.
Agent Pay and the Anthropic Partnership
Agent Connect sits inside Mastercard’s broader Agent Suite for Merchants, which bundles AI shopping and payment tools into one commerce system. The suite also supports post-purchase tasks, letting merchants deploy AI agents to handle order tracking, refund requests and returns.
Mastercard is also working with Anthropic on the merchant suite. Businesses can use a commerce agent blueprint that combines Claude models with Mastercard’s payment layer to build their own AI shopping agents.
Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said AI agents will change the buying interface again. He said the company wants businesses to stay in control as that shift happens.
Agent Pay is the payment control layer behind AI-initiated transactions. When a customer allows an agent to buy something on their behalf, the system records that permission through a tokenized credential.
The token separates an authorized purchase from one the customer never approved. Mastercard’s approach keeps identity, consent and payment credentials inside the transaction rather than treating the AI agent like a standard cardholder.
Machine Payments and Stablecoin Support
Agent Pay for Machines takes the model further, letting software applications and connected machines transact with each other. Mastercard built it for high-frequency, low-value payments that would be impractical to approve manually each time.
Those transactions can settle through card networks or stablecoin rails, depending on the product and payment provider. Spending limits, authorization rules and settlement conditions can all be set in advance by the account holder.
More than 30 companies have joined the machine payment initiative. Participants include Stripe, Coinbase, Adyen, Checkout.com, Cloudflare, OKX and Global Payments.
The June rollout of Agent Pay for Machines was backed by Ripple, the Solana Foundation and others. RippleX Senior VP Markus Infanger cited the XRP Ledger and RLUSD as tools for fast settlement and programmable compliance.
In May, Mastercard’s U.S. subsidiary received a New York BitLicense, allowing it to conduct virtual-currency business in the state. That approval covers stablecoin and tokenized deposit work under the compliance standards applied across its payment network.
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