Mastercard predicts AI agents will transform global shopping by 2030

A new Mastercard report, ‘A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments’, predicts that AI agents will significantly transform retail and payment sectors by 2030. The report forecasts that approximately 300 million consumers worldwide may regularly use AI agents to manage shopping tasks, ranging from searching and comparing offers to selecting products and completing payments.

Initial adoption is expected in routine categories such as groceries, pharmaceuticals, and subscriptions. While approximately 132 million consumers are already using AI, Mastercard U.S. Co-President Chiro Aikat notes that the willingness to delegate actual purchasing authority may develop at a different rate than general AI familiarity.

Challenges for the rise of ‘agentic commerce’ include maintaining consumer control and ensuring agents can account for complex personal preferences, such as loyalty rewards, airline miles, and return policies. Mastercard suggests that this shift is comparable to previous payment evolutions, such as the transition to EMV or mobile payments, but may accelerate faster due to existing AI integration in daily life.