Mastercard announced that it has completed a pilot program with Agentic AI, completing its first agentic authenticated transactions in the country. The transaction was conducted with two banks, CIMB and RHB.
The multinational payment service said that the agentic transaction was initiated by AI agents in a controlled pilot environment, complete with security and with transparency and full consumer control. As the official statement,Mastercard Agent Pay provides the safeguards needed for secure AI‑initiated transactions. Each transaction uses Mastercard Agentic Token, uniquely issued to each agent for enhanced security. Consumer consent is explicitly captured, and purchase confirmation is secured via Mastercard Payment Passkeys.
“The pilot demonstrated how AI can support consumers to complete everyday tasks — such as transportation — securely and seamlessly. In the inaugural test case, an AI agent booked a ride from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to KL Sentral through hoppa, a global mobility provider. The booking and agentic transaction was facilitated by CardInfoLink’s AI agent, which connects to hoppa’s taxi and airport limousine network.”
Mastercard expects commercial deployment for Agentic-AI initiated transactions in Malaysia to be rolled out in phases. Besides RHB and CIMB, the payment service will also be working closely with other banks and partners, while also educating the masses about the medium.
Agentic AI (Briefly) Explained
Agentic AI is a relatively new form of Generative AI. Unlike the traditional AI models, which requires a “human element” to give it is prompt consistently, Agentic AI requires a minimum amount of supervision, and once you’ve given it the necessary creative juices, the agents basically begin self-formulating, self-doubting, and rationalising by themselves before acting. Naturally, most folks would put in safeguards that will require the agent ot obtained approval before any final moves are made, but for the most part, the are self-autonomous.
We wrote a relatively in-depth explanation about how Agentic AI works, so we recommend that you check that out if you want a clearer picture.
(Source: Mastercard)
