The roundtable event, hosted at Mastercard’s New York City Tech Hub and moderated by PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, gathered approximately three dozen industry representatives. Participants from the tech, merchant, and issuer sectors discussed the integration of agentic artificial intelligence into the retail landscape.
Mastercard executive vice president Gaurang Shah noted that merchant trust depends on maintaining control over brand and customer interactions. The company has developed agentic capabilities specifically designed to allow retailers to manage how these automated systems engage with their products and services.
Industry experts emphasized that a large-scale transition to agentic commerce will take years to materialize. Discussions highlighted uncertainty regarding market impact, with some participants suggesting the technology will favor established retail brands, while others expect it to facilitate discovery of new merchants.
Data from the PYMNTS Intelligence report titled Will the 2026 Shopping Season Go Agentic? indicates that 50% of American adults have utilized AI for retail purchases. Additionally, 22% of consumers currently initiate their online shopping searches through AI-powered tools.
Current examples of agentic purchasing cited by Mastercard include Amazon’s Buy For Me feature and Google’s AI Mode. Experts suggest that building consumer confidence will require the same level of transparent communication and post-purchase expectation management standard in traditional eCommerce.
