Mastercard: Customer Experience and Agentic AI Expectations

Agentic AI has become a buzzword in recent months, with advancements in the field affecting how fintechs can prepare to best utilise agentic AI in ecommerce. 

Recent research from Mastercard suggests that spending on agentic AI is expected to increase significantly, tripling from US$430bn to US$1.3tn in 2029. 

In this exclusive Q&A with FinTech Magazine, Michele Centemero, EVP of Services at Mastercard, shares how fintechs can support agentic AI as the benefits become apparent for businesses. 

Could you tell us a bit about yourself? 

As Executive Vice President of Services at Mastercard Europe, I’m responsible for leading business development, customer success and our regional product groups across a broad range of value-added services. I also work closely with our global teams across areas including cybersecurity, data and marketing insights, and customer acquisition and engagement. 

My role focuses on helping financial institutions, merchants, corporates and public sector organisations adapt to rapidly changing consumer expectations and deliver more connected, secure and data-driven experiences.

Having worked across payments, fintech and digital commerce for many years, I’ve seen the industry evolve at extraordinary speed. Consumer expectations around convenience, personalisation and trust have fundamentally changed, and businesses have had to rethink how they engage customers in an increasingly digital world. That experience continues to shape my perspective on the future of commerce and the critical role that technology, data and security play in enabling growth and innovation.

Agentic AI is moving rapidly. What can fintechs and the wider ecosystem do to support its success?

Spending on agentic AI systems is projected to more than triple – from US$430bn in 2025 to US$1.3tn – by 2029. This rapid growth signals a broader shift in commerce, where value is increasingly defined by continuous, personalised experiences rather than one-off transactions. Consumers now expect merchants and platforms to anticipate intent and deliver relevant, timely interactions across the entire journey – not just at the point of purchase.

For fintechs and payment providers, this creates a clear opportunity to contribute trusted data, infrastructure and intelligence that make agentic systems more accurate, contextual and useful – while ensuring they operate within clear boundaries of permission and consumer control.

This could involve developing capabilities that can recognise intent accurately and respond appropriately and securely in real time – such as reaching customers at the right moment of purchase intent rather relying on assumptions. That kind of approach, built on permissioned data and clear consumer value, is what makes agentic experiences feel assistive rather than intrusive.

Success will also depend on collaboration across payments, technology, identity and security, so agent-led journeys are interoperable, safe and consistent. 

At Mastercard, we are supporting this shift through Mastercard Agent Suite, for example, enabling customers to build, test and deploy purpose-built AI agents, supported by our broader capabilities in security, payments and data.

The need is clear: a third of enterprise software applications will incorporate agentic AI by 2028 according to eMarketer. Mastercard also expects a significant share of customer interactions and operational tasks to be supported by AI agents by 2030.

What opportunities does agentic AI create for fintechs to create more personalised experiences that foster customer loyalty?

Agentic AI is creating a genuine opportunity to move beyond transactional relationships and build experiences that always feel personal and relevant. This shift is already underway: around half of younger consumers are using Gen AI for recommendations, and more than 70% of consumers say they’re open to AI playing a role in their shopping journeys.

Data sits at the heart of this – and fintechs have access to a wealth of high-quality signals. When this data – which includes spending patterns and insights – is used correctly, responsibly and with clear consent, it offers a level of personalisation that generic searches cannot match.

The loyalty opportunity here is significant. Consumers who feel genuinely understood rather than targeted are more likely to return. But it requires getting the fundamentals on data use, transparency and security right. Fintechs that see these as enablers rather than constraints will be able to harness agentic AI as a genuine driver of loyalty. 

Should businesses be wary of agentic AI? 

Rather than approaching agentic AI with caution, businesses should see it as a natural extension to how commerce is already evolving. AI is playing an increasingly critical role in helping brands build stronger connections and dialogues with consumers. 

Using AI-driven, real-time data analytics, businesses are now able to develop deeper insight into customer behaviours, preferences and spending patterns. This understanding makes it possible to deliver more relevant, meaningful interactions that drive engagement while maintaining brand visibility across the consumer journey. The impact is already well established; Mastercard Dynamic Yield partners, for instance, have seen up to 348 times ROI on AI-led personalisations.

Yet consumer expectations continue to change. The abundance of choice facing shoppers, combined with the introduction of technologies like longer-form conversational search options, has seen a further shift in consumer needs.

Shoppers increasingly want guidance, understanding and anticipation of their needs throughout their buying journeys. For example, Mastercard’s AI-powered shopping assistant, Shopping Muse, which guides discovery through personalised recommendations, has seen 15-20% higher conversion rates compared with traditional keyword searches.

Agentic AI will continue to build on this shift, extending today’s personalised experiences to become even more proactive and intuitive. As confidence and trust in AI technologies continue to grow, shoppers will expect agents to transact on their behalf, further removing friction from the process. 

Brands that begin experimenting, learning and investing in this next phase of innovation will be best placed to succeed as agentic AI increasingly becomes the norm. 

Could we see an entirely digital marketplace in the next five years? 

It’s unlikely that we’ll see commerce become entirely digital in the next five years – and that’s not necessarily the goal. What we are moving toward is a marketplace of greater choice, where digital and physical experiences coexist and consumers have the freedom to engage where, when and how they please.

The opportunity for businesses is to connect in-person commerce more seamlessly with digital journeys, not to eliminate it all together. Physical retail is already deeply embedded with digital – in-store navigation, scan-as-you-shop and scanless checkout are now well-established – and consumers continue to seek these efficiencies in physical spaces.

What AI, data and payments innovations will help bridge is more fluid shopping experiences across these environments, such as AI-assisted recommendations that lead to purchases on the high street – and potentially AI initiating those purchases too. 

What advice would you give to fintech CEOs about the future of AI and or agentic commerce?

As new technologies reshape commerce, they bring significant opportunity to reshape experiences and build long-lasting relationships between consumers and merchants.

Yet these same technologies also create opportunities for bad actors who are utilising AI to scale increasingly convincing scams. As digital journeys become more complex and interconnected, the importance of cybersecurity and the responsible, ethical use of data have never been greater.  Since 2019, Mastercard has invested US$12.6bn in cybersecurity innovation, underscoring the scale of this challenge and the need for continued vigilance.

In this more complex, interconnected digital ecosystem, trust becomes the defining currency. It can no longer be assumed – it must be actively built, demonstrated and continuously reinforced. Today’s consumers expect experiences that are not only seamless, fast and personalised, but also secure, transparent and dependable at every interaction.

For fintech CEOs, the priority should be ensuring trust is built into innovation from the start. As AI and agent-driven journeys scale, security, interoperability and appropriate-use of consumer data must be designed in at every touchpoint, not layered on after problems emerge. 

Those who succeed will be the ones who balance speed with responsibility – leveraging AI to unlock new value while maintaining rigorous standards for safety, ethics and consumer protection. In an agentic future, trust won’t just differentiate brands; it will determine who is able to participate at all.