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Calling out: "Alexa, play my Spotify chill playlist and give me dinner ideas using leftover chicken"; prompting ChatGPT to help you write a speech; asking Gemini to create slides for a work presentation. Chances are, you outsource humdrum tasks to AI quite regularly. But now, your AI assistant might soon be doing more than just suggesting – it could be actually doing things on your behalf.
That’s the future Mastercard is leaning into, with the rollout of something called "agentic commerce" in Australia. Agentic commerce is when AI agents act like you and for you online. Think of it as your AI assistant not just recommending things but actually clicking 'buy' for you. It operates and acts autonomously to complete multi-step, complex workflows, rather than being a passive tool. And while it might sound very sci-fi (and kinda freaky), it’s already happening.
In an Australian first, Mastercard’s Agent Pay has successfully processed fully authenticated AI-led transactions on its network. One case involved an AI agent purchasing cinema tickets from Event Cinemas using a CBA debit card. Another saw an AI book accommodation in Thredbo using a Westpac credit card. And every step of the process was approved, visible and secure – no hidden bots. What's more, these were not experiments in a lab – they were real transactions on Mastercard’s network.
Mastercard’s Agent Pay system makes sure AI agents are recognised participants in the payment process, meaning banks and businesses can see when an AI is making a purchase, verify it and keep things safe.
Why, though? Well, a few years ago, we probably didn't think we'd be chatting to artificial intelligence throughout the day to help us with everything from work to play and everything in between.
That said, Aussies are getting used to the idea of AI in everyday life; while 48 per cent of us have used AI assistants to shop online, trust is the sticking point, with nine out of ten Australians expressing fears about privacy and security.
Mastercard believes that if it can make AI spending as safe as tapping your card, we’ll be far more comfortable handing over the reins. They’re expanding this tech across Asia-Pacific, partnering with AI companies and building agentic teams to help banks and retailers adopt it.
If Mastercard is right, booking your trip to Tahiti could soon be done for you, not by you.