Mastercard has released a report, A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments, saying about 300 million shoppers globally may regularly use AI agents by 2030. The report said those users are expected to be concentrated in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, China, and South Korea.
The report is based on a survey carried out in June and July 2026 across 13 markets. It covered 13,000 parent-teen pairs, for a total of 26,000 respondents.
Teens show stronger interest in AI shopping
According to the survey, 65% of teenagers in the UK said AI will change how their generation shops. Globally, teenagers were about twice as likely as their parents to use AI for shopping.
On how dominant AI could become in commerce, 22% of UK teens said they expect shopping to be led by AI within five years. In France, that figure was 11%.
AI is already being used for product research and purchases
The survey found that 79% of teenagers and 70% of parents used AI in the past year to research products. It also said 51% of teens and 46% of parents had used AI at least once to complete a purchase.
Report points to compliance and payments changes
Mastercard cited Gartner forecasts that by 2028, most B2B procurement will be intermediated by AI agents, driving more than $15 trillion in spending. By 2030, 20% of monetary transactions will be programmable, according to the report.
The report also said “Know Your Agent,” or KYA, could become a compliance advantage. It added that payment intent, consent, and machine-readable warranties may form the infrastructure for agentic commerce.