Mastercard confirmed that its Agent Pay platform, a breakthrough in agentic, AI-powered payments, is now live in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), making it the first market outside the U.S. to adopt this next-generation payments innovation.
Mastercard Agent Pay, launched in Dubai with H.E. Omar Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work, in attendance, allows consumers to explore, compare, and complete purchases using AI-powered digital agents.
Agent Pay is Mastercard’s solution for “agentic commerce,” allowing trusted AI agents to make purchases on behalf of users. It uses Agentic Tokens, secure digital credentials built on Mastercard’s existing tokenization framework, enabling agents to transact safely with the cardholder’s consent. Consumers retain control, determining how much their AI agent can spend, which merchants it may use, and what kinds of products it can buy. Mastercard has also built in advanced fraud protection and “trusted agent” verification to ensure security and transparency.
In addition to the core payment capability, Mastercard has launched a full ecosystem of supporting tools. Its Agent Toolkit offers developers structured API documentation via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), while “Insight Tokens” allow agents to access user‑permissioned data (like shopping preferences) securely. Mastercard is also working on a verifiable‑credentials standard, so merchants can reliably verify AI agents’ identity and intent in every transaction.
Mastercard’s U.S. launch of Agent Pay came in late April 2025. The company says that Citi and U.S. Bank cardholders were the first to gain access, with all U.S. Mastercard holders expected to be enabled by the end of this month. However, despite the technical implementation, live payment interactions with the use of Mastercard agents took a while. In fact, the first “agentic” transaction on Mastercard’s network occurred in the U.S. only recently, in October.
The choice of the UAE as the next launch location for agentic payment infrastructure is strategic. With its advanced digital economy, strong AI ambitions, and regulatory environment that supports experimentation, the UAE provides fertile ground for agent‑driven commerce. Mastercard’s partner for the rollout in the Emirates is Majid Al Futtaim, a major retail and leisure group, giving the pilot immediate real-world reach across retail and entertainment. The move underscores Mastercard’s confidence in scaling Agent Pay into new markets and its broader ambition to embed AI-driven, tokenized payments into everyday commerce.
