Mastercard says it expects a future where businesses create services for AI agents to buy and use. Operating at machine speed, these agents could transact with each other continuously at high velocity, executing chains of transactions, including microtransactions.
“This shift could unlock a massive new wave of innovation, business models and economic activity, where any company, from solopreneurs to the largest enterprises, can become a virtual powerhouse,” argues the firm.
To make this possible, it has developed a way to pay for these services: AP4M, a service that will allow these transactions, some only fractions of a cent, to be permissioned, orchestrated and settled at machine speed across its global network.
“Agent Pay for Machines will create the conditions for a superbloom of AI business models,” says Jorn Lambert, chief product officer, Mastercard. “Machine payments can make it possible for services to be bought and sold among agents at fundamentally different scales than payments today — very high volumes, very small values, very fast and at extremely low latency.”
Read more: https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/47897/mastercard-launches-agent-pay-for-machines
