Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer, MasterCard, discusses the rise of agentic marketing and the future of AI-driven payments

In the fourth edition of Edge – MasterCard’s FlagySpping FlagySplish Forum of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Eemea), the chief officer at MasterCard, shares his opinion on how artificial intelligence is transforming commerce around the world.

Redefining the customer experience

JORN LAMBETTET described agentic commerce as “All the Buzz right now,” explaining that the excitement comes from the complete discovery of consumers through AI systems. He said technology is revolutionizing how people search, compare and buy products online. “If I wanted to buy a new pair of running shoes yesterday, I would have had to spend more than an hour scouring various websites, trying to figure out which pair was made for me – and still not be convinced that I got the best deal.”

He compared that experience to the capabilities of AI assistants today. “Now, with this kind of help, you can easily search for something like a good pair of hiking shoes that fit my profile and get them delivered to you right away.”

JORN said it is only natural that people will want to stay in that area and complete the purchase rather than return to the aim platform to be able to complete, “working where the consumer is sold.”

He added that AI is revolutionizing what used to be a long process. “Finding the right product used to take time and effort, but now it can be done in seconds, helping free people to focus on what’s really important.”

MasterCard Agent Pay

A key innovation in this area is Agentcard’s Agentic Payment Program – Agent Pay, designed to enable safe, secure and reliable payments in Agentic Commerce. Jorn Lambert stressed that the key to the whole process is keeping consumers safe.

“If you’re letting an agent use your money, you just want to make sure the agent is genuine and not something malicious,” he said. “You want to make sure the merchants are there. You want to make sure you don’t get anything wrong, and MasterArd’s MasterCard payment is all about that.”

He explained that the system ensures safety at every step: “First, to make sure we have agents to help you.

He added: “All of this needs to be carefully crafted, so we maintain trust in the system and people can go about their business with peace of mind.”

The power of interaction and behavior ai

Jorn Lambert explained that MasterCard’s progress in agentic commerce depends on collaboration across the ecosystem. “We don’t do anything ourselves,” he said. “Everything we do is with our partners. First and foremost, our issuing banks and acquiring banks – merchant platforms. We work with players like Cloudflare who provide platform technology.”

He described it as a true environmental effort. “It is important that we reach out, share ideas, gather feedback from all of these players to build this new environment with buy-in from everyone involved.”

JORN stressed that trust is always at the heart of Mastercard’s strategy. “If you don’t trust, the whole thing will fall on itself. Part of that is making sure the experience feels more natural to consumers, and part of it is showing them that we only work with legitimate, trustworthy agents.”

He added that Mastercard’s previous protections often extend to this new area. “The consumer using a mastercard will always be smart – even if the seller turns out to be a fraud or let him continue. That promise is worth it, and without it, it would not exist as a payment system.”

The next era of commerce

Looking ahead, Jorn Lambert said that agentic trading will not only change consumer consumption but also complement business operations. “It is very related to B2B, where many processes from accounts are paid, accounts receivable for inventory management have worked very well….

Jorn Lambert encouraged financial institutions and retailers to start preparing for this evolution. “What is critical is that we are all still preparing for this change,” he said. “The way we built MasterCard Agent Pay is what we call PASTAKERY. We prove consumers based on pasterreys, so we make change as seamless as possible.”

He emphasized that Shift does not want a complete override of existing systems. “It’s not a global reopening… But it’s still working to do it, because now we have a new player in the payment ecosystem – agents – and we need to adapt to be able to keep the system efficient and safe for consumers and businesses.”