Mastercard has introduced an AI payment system that allows a virtual credit card to be issued directly to a user’s AI agent. The agent can then make purchases at any online merchant that accepts Mastercard without requiring the cardholder’s approval for every transaction. That structure shifts oversight from approving each purchase individually to setting spending rules in advance — within the limits a cardholder defines, day-to-day purchasing decisions move from the person to the agent.

The product was announced through a partnership with San Francisco-based fintech startup Alchemy, whose toolkit is called AgentCard. Alchemy launched AgentCard in March 2026 and announced a partnership with Visa in June. With Alchemy now connected to both Visa and Mastercard, a large portion of credit cards in circulation can work with the tool.

Users connect an existing AI agent to their Mastercard account through Alchemy and establish rules for how it can spend. These controls can include spending caps, restrictions on which retailers the agent may use, and an option requiring the agent to check in before completing a transaction.

Mastercard’s system relies on what the company calls “agentic tokens.” Generated by the issuing bank, the tokens combine the cardholder’s stated intent with transaction details, allowing the payment network to verify that the agent is operating within approved limits.

Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert described the company’s view of the emerging technology. “We believe it’s not about if, it’s about when and how quickly,” Lambert said. “Nothing happens overnight.”

Mastercard Incorporated trades under the ticker MA. Its stock was up about 0.15% on the day, essentially flat following the news. Visa stock was also flat. Alchemy is a privately held company based in San Francisco and is not publicly traded.

A Crowded Field

Mastercard is not the only company developing tools for agentic payments. PayPal and Stripe are working on their own systems, while Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have each announced separate tools and standards to support purchases made through AI systems. That breadth of participation, spanning card networks, payment processors, and startups, reflects how the payments industry has converged on agentic commerce as an area of active product development.

Mastercard has also formed partnerships across the technology industry, including previous collaborations with Microsoft and IBM as part of its broader push into agentic commerce.

Consumer Trust and Regulatory Questions

Consumer trust remains a significant obstacle to adoption. Many users are uncomfortable giving an AI agent access to their financial information and are concerned about unauthorized charges.

Brendan Coughlin, president of Citizens Financial Group, said the concept has merit but cautioned that “it is certainly not without its risks.”

Regulatory questions also remain unresolved. It is unclear who would be responsible if an AI agent completed a transaction the cardholder did not intend, whether because of a malfunction or because the agent acted outside its configured boundaries. Bank executives, including Coughlin, remain cautious about how quickly the technology could reshape payments. How liability is ultimately assigned, and whether user-configured controls such as spending caps and pre-transaction check-ins prove sufficient to ease consumer concerns, are key questions to watch as the technology develops.

Mastercard did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Barron’s. The related Barron’s report and the original CoinCentral article provide additional source references.