Mastercard Unveils Machine-to-Machine Payment System for AI Agents

Mastercard has introduced a new service designed to enable artificial intelligence agents to engage in transactions autonomously. The offering, named Agent Pay for Machines, builds on the existing Agent Pay program, enhancing its ability to facilitate high-frequency, low-latency payments executed by machines.

This infrastructure is capable of managing continuous and permissioned payments, ensuring rapid execution at machine speeds. It supports various payment methods, including cards and stablecoins, which could change how businesses operate in the digital realm. For example, an AI agent representing a merchant could autonomously launch an online store by acquiring essential digital assets such as domain names, hosting services, and checkout pages.

Mastercard’s Chief Product Officer, Jorn Lambert, emphasized the significant potential of this initiative, stating, "Agent Pay for Machines will create the conditions for a superbloom of AI business models. Machine payments can make it possible for services to be bought and sold among agents at fundamentally different scales than payments today — very high volumes, very small values, very fast and at extremely low latency."

To support the growth of this open ecosystem, Mastercard is collaborating with over 30 initial partners, including Adyen. This partnership aims to validate key use cases, establish common operational rules, and accelerate the adoption of machine-to-machine payments across various industries. Karan Katyal, head of agentic commerce at Adyen, stressed the importance of foundational decisions made at this stage. He noted, "Building these foundations with partners like Mastercard, openly and with merchant outcomes at the center, is how we ensure this next era of commerce works for everyone in the ecosystem."

This launch follows Mastercard's introduction of Agent Pay in April 2025, which aimed to foster an agentic commerce future by integrating payment experiences into generative AI-driven conversational platforms. In March, the company also rolled out Verifiable Intent, an open-source framework designed to support agentic commerce. This framework links consumer identity, transaction instructions, and outcomes into a single, tamper-resistant record, ensuring transparency and accountability in transactions.

As AI technology continues to evolve, the implications of this new payment infrastructure could be significant, potentially reshaping digital commerce. The ability for machines to autonomously handle payments opens the door to innovative business models and efficiencies that were once unimaginable. Mastercard's strategic initiatives in this space demonstrate a commitment to leading the future of commerce in an increasingly automated world.