AI agents are shopping like never before - and tools like Mastercard’s ‘Pay for Machines’ could turbocharge the trend

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  "detected_at": "2026-10-26T10:53:19+00:00",
  "company": {
    "name": "Mastercard",
    "domain": "mastercard.com"
  },
  "data": {
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/10/26/ai-agent-shopping-commerce-mastercard-pay-for-machines-agent-pay-x402-micropayments-jorn-lambert/",
    "title": "AI agents are shopping like never before - and tools like Mastercard’s ‘Pay for Machines’ could turbocharge the trend",
    "author": "Jeff John Roberts",
    "excerpt": "It’s been a busy few weeks for AI agents. They’ve been rummaging around bank accounts, hacking crypto wallets and, according to MIT researchers, using their spare time to play . The agents have also been on an unprecedented shopping spree. We’ve known for some time that so-called agentic commerce would become a thing - but that moment is arriving far sooner, and on a scale that few anticipated. “What we’re witnessing is a bit of a turning point. We think it’s accelerating…We’re rapidly getting to something that will see real adoption,” Mastercard’s Head of Product, Jorn Lambert, told me last week. According to Lambert, this lift-off is due to the sudden popularity of mass-market personal agents. He explained that, a year ago, he and other industry leaders believed that MCP and ACP - agent-to-agent communication protocols that require a degree of technical skill - would be the pillars for agentic commerce, but that this assumption has already become outdated. Instead, the adoption curve has been flattened thanks to products like Muse from Meta and OpenAI’s Dots. The upshot is there is now a critical mass of consumers eager to send their agents to the digital mall. To ensure they have something to buy, Mastercard has rolled out a tool called “Agent Pay” that makes it easy for Muse and his friends to carry out transactions not just with retailers, but also government services...",
    "product": "tool that lets small-business users spin up ad campaigns",
    "summary": "Mastercard revealed a tool enabling small-business users to create and execute ad campaigns via AI agents.",
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    "image_url": "https://fortune.com/img-assets/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/GettyImages-2299665210.jpg?resize=1200,600",
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    "product_tags": [
      "online_technology",
      "general_technology",
      "future_tech",
      "marketing"
    ],
    "published_at": "2026-10-26T10:53:19Z",
    "article_sentence": "In another intriguing move, Mastercard last week revealed a tool that lets small-business users spin up ad campaigns."
  }
}

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  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
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