“Consumers Are Turning to AI Agents to Complete Purchases” Says Mastercard CPO

AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot have become mainstream and more people are turning to conversational agents, not traditional search engines for product discovery. But while AI can now personalize recommendations and streamline decision-making, there’s still a disconnect when it comes time to purchase. Consumers often have to leave these platforms to complete a transaction, breaking the flow and reintroducing friction.

Mastercard sees this gap as both a challenge and an opportunity. With the launch of Agent Pay, it aims to bridge that divide by embedding secure payments directly into AI-powered experiences and enabling a new model of commerce where agents can search, recommend, and that Mastercard will be the trusted engine underneath it all.

At the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference this week, Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert unveiled the company’s ambitious vision for “agentic commerce” , a future where AI agents not only help users discover products, but also transact on their behalf.

From Browsers to Bots

For over two decades, online shopping has been shaped by one behavior: the search. Consumers typed “best running shoes” into Google, scrolled through endless listings, and clicked through websites to compare options. But as Lambert points out, that behavior is already changing. Now, people are asking the same questions of AI agents like ChatGPT, expecting not just a list, but a curated, personalized answer.