Artificial intelligence is already changing how people search, write, analyse, and automate tasks. Now it is starting to move into something even more sensitive: actual payments. That is what makes Mastercard's latest announcement in Malaysia especially interesting. The company says it has completed its first live pilot involving an agentic AI transaction in the country, working together with CIMB and RHB in a controlled test environment. On the surface, it may sound like just another fintech experiment, but it actually points to a much bigger shift in how digital payments could work in the future.
