Mastercard Sees Agentic Commerce Growth Despite Travel Headwinds

Mastercard’s latest quarter reads less like a report on payments volume and more like a blueprint for how commerce may be conducted when software begins to transact on behalf of people.

Chief Executive Michael Miebach used the earnings call on Thursday (April 30) to place artificial intelligence (AI), agent-driven transactions and virtualized credentials at the center of the company’s strategy, arguing that the network’s future lies in enabling machines to initiate and complete payments securely.

“Our payment solutions are ready, and we are engaged shaping what comes next with key players, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and other partners across the ecosystem,” he said on the conference call with analysts, adding that “nearly all Mastercards around the world are now enabled for Mastercard Agent Pay.”

Mastercard is already embedding what it calls “Verifiable Intent,” a record of what a consumer authorized when an AI agent acts, and linking those permissions to tokenized credentials. The objective is to make agent-initiated payments resemble traditional card transactions in their protections, even as the initiating party shifts from a person to software.

Consumers Spend, But Travel Softens

The backdrop for those ambitions remains a consumer that continues to spend, even as certain corridors show strain. Miebach described “healthy underlying consumer and business spending,” while acknowledging that geopolitical tensions are weighing on travel flows.

That tension is visible in the company’s cross-border data. Volumes rose at a double-digit pace overall, supported by both travel and non-travel activity, though the latter has proven more resilient.

The network’s scale still provides insulation. Mastercard cited billions of cards in circulation and continued growth in transaction counts, with contactless penetration approaching four out of five in-person transactions.

Miebach framed the opportunity in practical terms. “We believe that tokenized money will occupy a meaningful part of the money movement in the future,” he said, pointing to use cases such as cross-border B2B payments, remittances and wallet funding.

The company is not positioning stablecoins as a replacement for cards, but as an additional layer that can be routed through existing infrastructure. The emphasis is on interoperability and compliance, areas where BVNK’s technology is intended to provide an advantage.

Virtual Cards and Commercial Flows

That orchestration extends to commercial payments, where virtual cards continue to gain traction, particularly in travel and B2B flows. Mastercard highlighted new partnerships with online travel agencies and corporate platforms during the call.

Chief Financial Officer Sachin Mehra noted that net revenue was up 12%, “reflecting continued growth in our payment network and our value-added services and solutions,” while operating income also advanced. In the U.S., gross dollar volume (GDV) increased by 4%, with credit growth of 8% and debit growth of 1%.

Cross-border assessments and transaction processing revenues also expanded, aided by pricing and mix, even as foreign exchange volatility and geopolitical events introduced variability.

Investors sent the shares 3% lower in early trading on Thursday.

Mastercard expects growth to remain in the low double-digit range, with the second quarter shaped in part by assumptions that current geopolitical disruptions will ease.

Mehra struck a measured tone, noting that the company is “operating in a period of heightened uncertainty,” even as underlying spending trends remain supportive. The near-term results still depend on consumer behavior and cross-border flows. The longer-term bet is that the definition of a transaction is about to expand.