Why Payment Infrastructure Company Checkout.com Is Strategically Focusing on Agentic Commerce

Why Checkout.com Is Focusing on Agentic Commerce

Mastercard x Checkout: A discussion on agentic commerce

Pablo Fourez, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard, sat down with Checkout.com to unpack the tech behind Agent Pay and the future of agentic commerce.

UK-based payment infrastructure company Checkout.com is accelerating its strategic shift toward "agentic commerce"—autonomous commercial transactions by AI agents. In November 2025, the company announced adoption of the OpenAI-backed "Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP)." This protocol enables AI agents to complete product discovery, selection, and purchase on behalf of consumers within ChatGPT.

Checkout.com's Chief Product Officer Meron Colbeci stated, "Success depends on collaboration based on deep trust across the entire ecosystem." The company is partnering with Visa, Mastercard, and Google to establish global standards for secure, tokenized intelligent payments.

Consumer Survey Shows 47% Acceptance

Checkout.com's survey "Peak Season '25: The debut of agentic commerce?" conducted in September 2025 with 4,000 UK and US respondents revealed consumer acceptance of agentic commerce.

Key findings include:

• 47% of consumers intend to use AI agents for 2025 Christmas shopping
• 72% of millennials (ages 25-34) are open to AI agent purchases
• 47% want to delegate "boring" repetitive purchases to AI agents
• 21% of 25-34 year-olds are willing to entrust weekly grocery shopping to AI agents

Checkout.com's CMO Rory O'Neill stated, "This Christmas could be the first calendar moment where agentic AI becomes part of everyday shopping behavior."

The company predicts that within five years, agentic commerce could account for approximately 21% of monthly household spending.

Industry Giants: Visa, Mastercard, and FIS Enter the Arena

Visa's Initiatives

In December 2025, Visa announced completion of hundreds of AI agent-initiated transactions through partnerships. APAC Product & Solutions Head T.R. Ramachandran suggested that commercial-level AI agent transactions could begin as early as Q1 2026.

Visa announced the "Trusted Agent Protocol" in October 2025. This open framework distinguishes malicious bots from legitimate AI agents and partners with over 100 global companies. The company predicts millions of consumers will use AI agents by the 2026 holiday season.

Mastercard's Moves

Mastercard launched the "Agent Pay" program in April 2025. The program consists of four pillars:

1. Agentic Tokens - Replaces actual card numbers with encrypted tokens
2. Know Your Agent (KYA) - Registration protocol ensuring only trusted agents access payments
3. Authentication - Cardholder consent verification via biometrics and passkeys
4. Standardization - Secure API exposure to agents through MCP server standards

Mastercard's CDO Pablo Fourez stated, "This is as big a change as mobile payments," emphasizing the scale of the paradigm shift.

FIS Entry

On January 12, 2026, FIS announced an agentic commerce platform for banks. In partnership with Visa and Mastercard, this platform will be available to all FIS-issuing banks by the end of Q1 2026.

Market Size Projections: Up to $5 Trillion by 2030

Multiple research firms project rapid growth in the agentic commerce market.

McKinsey's Projection

McKinsey anticipates $900 billion to $1 trillion in orchestration revenue opportunities in the U.S. B2C retail market alone by 2030. Globally, this could reach $3-5 trillion.

Bain & Company's Projection

Bain predicts the U.S. agentic commerce market will reach $300-500 billion by 2030, accounting for 15-25% of total e-commerce.

Three Reasons Payment Infrastructure Companies Are Strategically Focusing

Capturing the Next Commerce Paradigm Early

Mastercard's Sandeep Malhotra (EVP, Asia Pacific Core Payments) stated: "The big changes in payments happened mainly when we moved from the physical world to the e-commerce world. Now we're seeing the next shift—from the e-commerce world to the agentic commerce world."

For payment infrastructure companies, involvement in standard-setting at this paradigm shift's early stages is crucial for securing future market position.

Role as Security and Trust Guardians

In a world where AI agents conduct autonomous transactions, the capabilities of agentic payment networks become essential:

• Secure payment processing through tokenization technology
• Advanced fraud detection and risk management
• Agent authentication and transaction legitimacy verification

Visa's "Trusted Agent Protocol" and Mastercard's "Agent Pay" are designed precisely for this role.

Agent Transactions as New Revenue Source

With 47% of consumers accepting purchase delegation to AI agents, this represents a new source of transaction revenue for payment infrastructure companies. Agent transactions create different data points and value-creation opportunities compared to traditional e-commerce transactions.

Impact and Applications for E-commerce Businesses

Preparations to Start Now

According to Checkout.com's analysis, e-commerce businesses have two approaches:

• Optimize existing stores for AI agent discoverability
• Prepare clear, structured product data
• Implement real-time inventory systems

• Integrate with dedicated agentic commerce platforms
• Implement AI-ready APIs
• Develop transparent policies for data protection and spending limits

Timeline

• Q1 2026 - Visa and FIS expected to launch commercial services
• Q2 2026 - Mastercard deploys Agent Pay in Latin America & Caribbean
• 2026 Holiday Season - Visa predicts millions purchasing via AI agents

Conclusion

The reason payment infrastructure companies like Checkout.com are strategically focusing on agentic commerce is clear. Consumer acceptance is rapidly increasing, and 2026 is expected to be the definitive turning point.

What's important for e-commerce businesses is to view this change not as a mere technology trend but as a fundamental paradigm shift in commerce. Strategic preparation from both payment infrastructure and AI readiness perspectives is now required.

As McKinsey and Bain projections indicate, a multi-trillion dollar market could form by 2030. Businesses that adapt early to this paradigm shift will gain competitive advantage in next-generation commerce.