Mastercard predicts AI agents will handle routine shopping by 2030

A new report from Mastercard, titled ‘Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments’, forecasts that by 2030, more than one in ten online shoppers will routinely use AI agents to conduct purchases on their behalf.

These AI agents are expected to handle routine tasks such as buying groceries, medications, or managing subscriptions, and may even be capable of negotiating prices. The report highlights a generational shift in technology adoption: a survey of 26,000 parents and teenagers across 13 countries found that teenagers use AI for shopping decisions twice as often as their parents. Approximately 27% of teenagers believe they would use a fully AI-operated shopping assistant that recommends, selects, and completes transactions based on user-defined rules.

However, the rise of automated commerce introduces significant challenges regarding liability and precision. As AI agents move from making recommendations to executing payments, questions arise about who is responsible for errors, such as booking a hotel that meets budget requirements but fails to meet qualitative expectations. Experts suggest that payment systems must evolve to include verifiable instructions and spending ceilings to manage the gap between user permission and transaction satisfaction.