At the fourth edition of EDGE – Mastercard’s flagship payments forum for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA), Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard, shared his vision for how artificial intelligence is transforming global commerce.
Redefining the customer experience
Jorn Lambert described agentic commerce as “all the buzz right now,” explaining that the excitement stems from enormous consumer adoption for AI systems. He said the technology is already reshaping how people search, compare, and buy products online. “If I wanted to buy new running shoes yesterday, I would’ve had to spend over an hour scrolling through different websites, trying to figure out which pair was right for me – and still not be sure if I got the best deal.”
He contrasted that experience with the capabilities of AI assistants today. “Now, with this kind of assistance, you can simply search for something like long-distance running shoes with good ratings that match my profile and are available for next-day delivery near me, and it’ll instantly give you a response tailored to you.”
Jorn said it is “only natural that people will want to stay in that environment and complete the purchase rather than going back to a merchant website to complete it,” which is where agentic commerce comes in. “At Mastercard, we’re working with AI platforms to enable seamless, secure transactions – ensuring consumers, merchants, agents, and the banks supporting them are all protected and transparent.”
He added that AI is transforming what was once a lengthy process. “Finding the right product used to take time and effort, but now it can be done in seconds, helping free people to focus on what really matters.”
Mastercard Agent Pay
A key part of innovation in this area is Mastercard’s Agentic payments program – Agent Pay, designed to enable secure, scalable and trusted payments in agentic commerce. Jorn Lambert emphasised that the key in this whole process is to keep consumers safe.
“If you allow an agent to spend your money, you just want to make sure that that agent is real and not some malicious bot,” he said. “You want to make sure that the merchants exist. You want to make sure that you have recourse in case something goes wrong, and Mastercard Agent Pay is about all that.”
He explained that the system ensures security at every step: “First, making sure that we have registered agents that can help you. Second, making sure that you as a consumer are authenticated so nobody can steal your credentials… Third, making sure that the merchant is aware of what’s happening and then fourth, “making sure that your intent for the purchase is recorded, in case the wrong running shoes are delivered, giving you recourse.”
“All this needs to be carefully constructed,” he added, “so we retain trust in the system and people can go about their activities with peace of mind.”
The power of collaboration and ethical AI
Jorn Lambert explained that Mastercard’s progress in agentic commerce depends on collaboration across the entire ecosystem. “We don’t do anything on our own,” he said. “Everything we do is with our partners. First and foremost, our issuing banks and acquiring banks – the banks of the merchants. We’re working with merchants and marketplaces, with the major AI platforms and with players like Cloudflare that provide the underlying platform technology for merchants.”
He described it as a true ecosystem effort. “It’s essential that we reach out, share ideas, and gather feedback from all these players to build this new environment with buy-in from everyone involved.”
Jorn emphasized that trust remains the foundation of Mastercard’s strategy. “If you don’t have trust, the whole thing will collapse on its own. Part of that is making sure the experience feels very natural to consumers, and part of it is showing them that we’re only working with legitimate, trusted agents.”
He added that Mastercard’s long-standing consumer protections extend into this new landscape. “A consumer using a Mastercard will always have recourse – even if the seller turns out to be fraudulent or doesn’t exist. That promise must continue in agentic commerce. It’s what defines us, and without it, we wouldn’t exist as a payment system.”
Next era of commerce
Looking ahead, Jorn Lambert said that agentic commerce will not only transform consumer spending but also streamline business operations. “It’s extremely relevant for B2B, where many processes from accounts payable, accounts receivable to inventory management can be made far more efficient…. The very principles of safety, security, authentication, and certification apply to the B2B environment as well.”
Jorn Lambert encouraged financial institutions and merchants to start preparing for this evolution. “What’s critical is that we’re all preparing ourselves for this shift,” he said. “The way we’ve built Mastercard Agent Pay is what we call backward compatible. We’re authenticating consumers based on passkeys, which are already used in e-commerce, so we’re making the transition as seamless as possible.”
He emphasized that the shift doesn’t demand a complete overhaul of existing systems. “It’s not about rewiring the entire world… but there’s still work to do, because we now have a new player in the payment ecosystem – the agents – and we need to adapt to keep the system both running smoothly and safe for consumers and businesses.”
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