Mastercard is betting on a new era of agentic commerce, where AI agents can act on behalf of consumers, make purchases, and even transact with other machines. But handing an AI agent your wallet raises new questions around trust, identity, and accountability. What happens when an agent buys the wrong thing, exceeds its authority, or gets manipulated? And how do you build a payments system that can distinguish between human and non-human actors?
Fortune’s Ruth Umoh sits down with Ed McLaughlin, Mastercard’s President and Chief Technology Officer, to discuss the future of agentic commerce, AI-powered fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and what happens when machines become participants in the global economy.
0:00 AI Agents Are About to Change How We Shop
1:04 What’s Keeping Mastercard’s CTO Up at Night?
3:46 How Mastercard Transformed Over 20 Years
5:33 Lessons From a Startup Founder
8:34 How Mastercard Makes Decisions at Scale
11:15 How to Move Fast Without Breaking Things
16:11 Is Identity the New Challenge of the AI Era?
20:14 Mastercard’s Biggest AI Opportunities
26:17 Who’s Liable When an AI Agent Makes a Purchase?
36:30 The Leadership Skills AI Can’t Replace
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