Booking a ride from the airport usually takes a few taps on a phone. In the future, an artificial intelligence assistant could complete the entire transaction on a person’s behalf, including making the payment.

Mastercard has completed its first pilot in Malaysia showing how artificial intelligence agents can initiate and authenticate a payment securely. The test, conducted with CIMB Group Holdings Berhad and RHB Banking Group, demonstrated how AI systems could carry out everyday purchases while keeping users in control of the transaction.

Pilot Shows How Artificial Intelligence Can Complete A Purchase

The pilot used Mastercard’s Agent Pay technology and was carried out in a controlled testing environment with the participating banks.

In the test case, an AI agent arranged transportation from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to KL Sentral through hoppa, a global mobility provider that connects to taxi and airport limousine services.

The booking and payment process was handled by an AI agent developed by CardInfoLink, which connects directly to hoppa’s network. Once the ride was arranged, the payment was completed using tokenised card credentials and authenticated through Mastercard Payment Passkeys.

Tokenisation replaces actual card numbers with encrypted digital tokens, which helps prevent card details from being exposed during a transaction.

The Technology Focuses On Secure Payments Initiated By AI

The pilot tested a concept known as agentic commerce, where AI systems can act on a user’s behalf to complete purchases after receiving permission.

Under Mastercard’s system, each AI agent is assigned a unique digital token known as a Mastercard Agentic Token. This token allows the system to identify and authenticate the AI agent before any payment is processed.

Consumer consent must also be captured before the transaction takes place, while the final payment confirmation is secured using Mastercard Payment Passkeys for additional verification.

According to Mastercard Malaysia country manager Beena Pothen, the pilot was designed to demonstrate how artificial intelligence could participate in digital commerce while maintaining strong security safeguards.

The collaboration with CIMB and RHB also ensured that the transaction met existing standards for tokenisation and payment authentication.

Commercial Rollout Will Take Time

The pilot confirmed that AI-initiated transactions can technically work within Malaysia’s existing payment infrastructure. However, the technology is not yet available for everyday consumer use.

Mastercard said commercial deployment will take place gradually as banks and payment partners build systems that allow customers to interact safely with AI-driven payments.

Part of this rollout will involve educating consumers on how agentic commerce works and what level of control they retain over transactions carried out by AI assistants.

For most consumers today, the immediate experience of making payments will remain unchanged while these systems continue to be tested and integrated.

Agentic Commerce Standards Are Taking Shape Globally

For consumers, these developments signal a possible shift in how digital payments may work in the future. Globally, the infrastructure for agentic commerce is already taking shape, Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open standard co-developed with Shopify and endorsed by Mastercard, Visa, and others, is set to expand beyond its current US rollout to markets worldwide in the coming months. 

Malaysia’s existing payment rails, as demonstrated by this pilot, appear well-positioned to support that shift. Instead of manually completing every transaction, AI assistants could eventually handle routine purchases such as travel bookings or subscriptions, while authentication systems continue to ensure that the user remains in control of the payment.

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