How Mastercard CEO is preparing for a world where AI agents do the shopping

How Mastercard CEO is preparing for a world where AI agents do the shopping Brian Sozzi · Executive Editor Thu, August 20, 2026 at 5:32 PM GMT+2 4 min read MA PEP Listen and subscribe to Power Players with Brian Sozzi on Apple Podcasts , Amazon Music , Spotify , YouTube , or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Mastercard ( MA ) CEO Michael Miebach vividly recalls working on long-term strategy as the new CEO of an iconic company smack in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. His office was inside an empty, sprawling headquarters a few miles from PepsiCo ( PEP ) in Purchase, N.

Y. , and next to a furry friend. "It was a big learning.

One of the things that I picked up was it's good to be in the office," Miebach said on the Power Players with Brian Sozzi podcast (see video above; listen below) inside that same sprawling headquarters. "So every day, I drove to the office, including my predecessor, who was our executive chair for a period of time. … One gentleman from our canteen company was brave enough to come in this office.

It was five of us and a security person. One of my colleagues brought his dog because his dog sitter wasn't around any longer. And this was the think tank.

" What a way to start a CEO tenure! This embedded content is not available in your region. The German-born Miebach — who has spent his entire career in payment innovation and was Mastercard's chief product officer before snagging the corner-office job — has moved with focused speed to modernize the payments giant founded in 1966.

The company has leaned into the business of stablecoins, protecting cardholders from cybercrime, and expanding overseas. Miebach has readied the company for the age of AI agent e-commerce — importantly, protecting consumers from fraudulent agents buying things on their behalf. Last year, Mastercard introduced "Agent Pay," the company's payment framework that allows artificial intelligence agents to shop online for consumers using a secure process.

"The agent is an additional party in this ecosystem that just didn't exist before," Miebach explained. "So, in April last year, we created something called Agent Pay. It basically recognizes there's an additional party, and that party needs to go through the same vetting that the person had to go through.

Are you real? And all of that is accredited in the network as an entity that exists like you are with your card number. And then the same checks and balances apply.

All of these transactions in the world of agents will all be tokenized, and they're extra safe. So no need to worry. … The world is just not ready right now.

There's not too many agentic experiences at this point. We feel it's going to come. So this is where it's going.

" Story Continues Miebach's efforts have not gone unnoticed in quarterly earnings. Mastercard's second quarter net revenue surged 12% year over year to $9. 3 billion.

Adjusted EPS came in at $5. 07, up 19% from the prior year. "We went into Mastercard's 2Q expecting an in-line quarter but had concerns around second half guidance (which previously assumed the Middle East conflict would end in 2Q) as well as growth optics on various lines compared to Visa," JPMorgan analyst Tien-tsin Huang wrote in a note.

"By and large, these concerns were unfounded as Mastercard comfortably beat 2Q estimates/guidance on better than expected cross border trends as well as pricing, while our 2H26 revenue estimates move higher. " While we can appreciate the competitive environment and consumer spending concerns swirling around all card players, the fundamentals of Mastercard, Visa ( V ), and American Express ( AXP ) don't support the bearishness in their stocks right now. That goes especially for Mastercard.

The stock is down slightly over the past year, versus an 11% gain for American Express and a 6% gain for Visa. Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data shows Mastercard's sales growth has increased more than 10% for 22 straight quarters. Operating profit margins have steadily climbed above 60%, a trend that began seven quarters ago.

Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach (left) chats with Yahoo Finance executive editor Brian Sozzi about the future of payments at the card giant's Purchase, N. Y. headquarters.

· Yahoo Finance The stock performance isn't getting Miebach down. Just as when he started as CEO, he is setting the company up to succeed over the next decade. "We cannot imagine what comes after digital assets and stablecoin, but whatever the next thing is, we will be there when it comes to ensuring that a MasterCard payment is always the safest and smartest payment," Miebach said.

"The question is about trust. The biggest promise of our brand is wherever you see the MasterCard logo, you have to never worry that you're protected. The merchant, the shop, the company will be paid, and the person who is paying if something goes wrong will not be liable.

" The only difference now: no pooch in the office. Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor, host of the Power Players with Brian Sozzi podcast, and a member of Yahoo Finance's editorial leadership team. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi , Instagram , and LinkedIn .

Tips on stories? Email brian. sozzi@yahoofinance.

com.