Citi & U.S. Bank to Pilot Mastercard’s AI Payments Service

Citi and U.S. Bank Mastercard cardholders will be the first to trial Agent Pay, a new service that allows AI agents to initiate and complete transactions on behalf of users.

Mastercard unveiled the technology in April and plans to roll it out to all US cardholders by the holiday season, ahead of a global launch.

Agent Pay is designed to embed payments into the growing ecosystem of agentic AI, which are artificial intelligence tools that act independently to handle tasks for users.

Mastercard says the service will enable AI assistants and agents to access its API documentation through its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, interpret it using structured, machine-readable content, and complete purchases securely.

Other features being rolled out include Agent Sign-Up, which allows developers to register agents for access to Mastercard’s AI-enabled products, and Insight Tokens, which let authorized agents deliver more personalized shopping experiences.

Mastercard explained the concept with the example of an AI agent planning a birthday party, selecting outfits and accessories based on a customer’s style, the venue’s ambience and even the weather, before completing the purchase and recommending a payment method.

The initiative is part of Mastercard’s wider push to establish standards in AI-driven commerce. Earlier this year, the company announced a landmark program with Microsoft and other AI platforms to accelerate the integration of payments with agentic AI.

Craig Vosburg, chief services officer at Mastercard, said: “AI-powered payments aren’t just a trend — they’re a transformation,

“Payments must be native to the agentic experience. We’re building the infrastructure for a new generation of intelligent transactions, where consumers and developers can empower AI agents to act on their behalf with trust, transparency, and precision.”