AI is moving from helping us plan a trip to actually booking it — and even paying for it. Mastercard is building the infrastructure to make that possible securely, at a time when travel itself is being transformed across the region. Joining me is Mete Guney, Executive Vice President for Market Development across Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at Mastercard. Such a pleasure having you with us.
Pleasure is mine.
For a traveller, what will an AI agent actually be able to do that today's travel apps cannot?
We all love to travel — for business, for pleasure. But travel requires a lot of planning. Flight tickets, accommodation, restaurants, city guides. I am sure you have already started using AI to plan your next vacation — getting recommendations, getting suggestions. That has become very common. But what we have brought into this picture with Agent Commerce is that it is not just discovery or planning. On top of that, these agents can start making payments on your behalf — for flight tickets, accommodation, or anything else related to your travel. And they can do it when you authorise them at any time of the day. For example, you are looking for a flight ticket that should not cost more than 1,500 riyals. Currently it is much higher than that. An agent will track what is happening in the market and the moment it finds the right price, it will make the transaction on your behalf. That makes life much easier.
Mastercard just expanded its agent suite for merchants and launched Agent Connect. If I am an airline or hotel in this region, what does that allow me to do today that I could not before?
As an airline, you might have your own agent to help consumers with booking and planning. Or you might not have an agent — but other agents are coming to your website to track what is available. The question is: how would you know that this agent is genuine and not fraudulent? How would you trust it? What standards are you going to use for data exchange and payments? How would you authenticate? These are lots of questions that need to be answered to complete this journey end to end. This is where the Agent Suite comes in. We are establishing standards across the industry so that everyone communicates with the same language. When an agent visits your website, it will already have been authenticated by Mastercard. You know it is a reliable, trustable agent that can collect information and help the consumer make the final decision. Standardisation. Authentication. Security.
Mastercard's own research says 85% of consumers are comfortable letting AI help them find the best option — but only 10% are ready to let it make a purchase autonomously. What is missing between those two numbers?
If you ask me what is the most important currency running through our ecosystem — it is not dollars, it is not euros, it is not dirhams, it is not riyals. It is trust. Trust is the most important currency for our ecosystem, and consumers want to trust something before using it. Would you trust a recommendation from AI for investment or a medical diagnosis from AI? You will always look for a second opinion — the trust element is not 100% there yet. This is why it will take time. Trust takes time to build, and adoption will grow gradually. But we know how to make it happen. It was the same with contactless payments. It was the same with mobile payments. When consumers see genuine interest in using these tools, they will start using them more and more. That is what we will see with agent commerce.
Travel seems almost made for this technology because the journey is so fragmented — flights, hotels, transport, restaurants. Where do agents deliver real value first?
I think agents and AI will help on both fronts — managing budgets and other issues with travel planning. Travel is a very complicated journey with multiple elements offered by different suppliers. If it was all offered by one supplier, why did we go to a travel agent in the past? Because they took care of everything for you. Now everything is digitised but offered by different suppliers. This is where AI comes into the picture — giving recommendations, giving you the hottest trends where you are visiting so you can maximise and optimise the pleasure of your journey, while also taking care of all the payments and helping you optimise your spend. Information asymmetry today works against consumers because they cannot capture all the data available. With AI, information asymmetry will work in the favour of consumers because it will recommend what they need and what they should do.
Thank you very much for coming. It has been a pleasure having you.
Thank you. It is my pleasure.
