Mastercard won't back virtual cards for AI agents long term

Mastercard chief executive Michael Miebach told analysts on Thursday 29 October that one-time virtual cards for AI shopping agents are a stopgap his company will not keep backing [1]. “A VCN is a processor decision that is a bridge to get ready for a fully tokenized transaction all the way through for a period of time,” he said on the third-quarter call, using the trade shorthand for a virtual card number, and added: “that’s not a long-term solution that we will support” [1]. Network tokens stand in for the card details while keeping the purchase tied to the customer’s own card, with its rewards and controls [1]. Mastercard’s Agent Pay uses them [1].

PYMNTS’s report carries no end date for that support. Miebach expects consumer use of agents to build over holiday shopping [1], and said a new agreement with OpenAI includes Agent Pay [1]. Chief financial officer Ling Hai named extra token functions for agents as an area for development and pricing [1]. PYMNTS, citing The Information, says Stripe tends to issue a single-use virtual card for agents, linked to the cardholder’s account, and that card networks worry this reduces their control and makes it harder to tie the user to the purchase [2]. Meta’s Muse agent pays through Stripe’s Link wallet [7].

Shopify picks the networks’ route for Shop Pay

On Wednesday 28 October, Shopify vice president of product Rohit Mishra wrote on X that the company is working with Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover so buyers can use Shop Pay “at any merchant, whether it runs on Shopify or not” [2]. “The agent never sees the buyer’s card,” he wrote, and buyers keep their rewards and protection [2]. Miebach said Shop Pay is using Agent Pay and Mastercard network tokens [1], and Visa had named it among its live partners on 27 October [3]. The plan takes Shop Pay past Shopify’s own shops in agentic commerce, a month after Shopify let browser agents check out on its eligible stores [2].

Visa calls it a tipping point, then a very small amount

Visa chief executive Ryan McInerney called the last quarter “a bit of a tipping point” for users seeing agents carry out real transactions, naming Muse and Instinct, on the fiscal fourth-quarter call on Tuesday 27 October [3]. “I think it’s still very early,” he said, and across Visa’s business “it’s a very small amount” [3]. Visa has nearly 50 AI partners live and in production, expects that to double in the coming months, and said Ramp’s agentic bill pay is now generally available [3]. McInerney described trust as the biggest barrier and said Visa’s rules set out the roles and processes when something goes wrong [3], the question the desk’s answer on who is liable when an AI agent buys the wrong thing takes up.

PayPal chief executive Enrique Lores made the same trust argument on his own call that day, saying the company is “collaborating with Meta and other AI companies to integrate PayPal into AI for personal agents” [4]. Consumer agents and merchants, he said, “will have to validate that this is a real consumer that can pay” [4].

Amazon says few people shop this way

Andy Jassy took the retailer’s side on Amazon’s third-quarter call on 29 October. “Few customers are doing much shopping this way yet, as the experience is still not great nor more convenient than coming to a retailer directly to research or one-click order there,” he said of agentic shopping [6]. Amazon has blocked ChatGPT and Meta’s Muse from scraping its site, and Jassy left the door ajar: “Though we anticipate working with horizontal agents, we believe Alexa for Shopping is going to be the primary shopping agent customers use to shop Amazon” [5].

More than 400 million customers have used Alexa for Shopping in the last 12 months, up from 350 million at the end of July, and Jassy said they spend 50% more than those who do not [5]. The report gives no method for that comparison. Amazon also added more than 100 capabilities ahead of the holidays, including pausing certain Subscribe and Save subscriptions [5].