MASTERCARD
PAYMENTS
MASTERCARD
HEADQUARTERS: GLOBAL: NEW YORK, US UK & IRELAND: LONDON, UK
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: GLOBAL: 40,000 + EUROPE: 9,000 +
MARKET CAP: US $ 507.4BN( AS OF SEPTEMBER 2026)
NUMBER OF COUNTRIES AND TERRITORIES: GLOBAL: 210 +
EUROPE: 30
B
y 2030, one in 10 online shoppers will routinely use AI agents to choose and pay for products on their behalf, according Mastercard’ s A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments report that frames agentic commerce as one of the most significant shifts in retail and payments in decades.
In light of this, and as the Bayeux Tapestry returns to England for the first time in centuries, Mastercard is unveiling a modern counterpart: the Payeux Tapestry, a visual narrative mapping how AI agents will reshape shopping and payments by 2030.
The new artwork is the visual centrepiece of A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments, a report that forecasts AI‐driven consumer spending will reach £ 370bn( US $ 500bn) a year globally by the end of the decade, urging millions of businesses – from retail and real estate to finance and hospitality – to rethink how they sell or risk missing out. The report draws on Mastercard research and the perspectives of four futurists – Patrick Dixon MBE, Katja Forbes, Theodora Lau and Magnus Lindkvist – and argues that AI is moving from a tool that helps people decide what to buy to one that does the purchasing for them.“ For 60 years, Mastercard has been helping people pay and get paid simply and securely, and that purpose continues through what could be one of the most significant shifts in retail shopping in decades,” says Simon Forbes, President of Mastercard UK & Ireland.
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