Mastercard, Trip.com and Network International expect to commercialize an AI-powered booking and payment solution in early 2027, with a phased rollout that lets consumers search, book and pay entirely through Trip.com's AI agent, TripGenie.

The partners are showcasing the solution as a global first at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. The demonstration covers product discovery, research and consumer-authorized purchases for selected travel services, including attractions and ancillary products, inside existing e-commerce environments.

For travel sellers, the significance is structural. Mastercard's Agent Suite for Merchants, the platform behind the initiative, is built to let businesses deploy AI-driven shopping at scale while keeping control of their brand and customer relationships. It is distributed through Mastercard Merchant Cloud, an open acceptance framework offering modular payment services — fraud protection, authentication, tokenization, data and partner services. That distribution route means any merchant or payment service provider can theoretically plug agent-driven transactions into existing acceptance infrastructure rather than building bespoke integrations.

What does the deal change for distribution?

The three companies position the initiative as a scalable blueprint for merchants, payment service providers and financial institutions across the EEMEA region to adopt agent-driven commerce. Trip.com supplies the travel inventory and ecosystem; Network International provides acquiring; Mastercard contributes its payments network, gateway infrastructure and agentic commerce technology.

The partners say the project will build confidence in agentic transactions and open the way for expansion into additional use cases and markets — language that marks this as a demonstration and pilot framework, not yet measured transaction volume.

Mete Güney, executive vice president for market development, EEMEA at Mastercard, framed the demo in transactional terms. "Through our collaboration with Trip.com and Network International, we are showcasing how consumers can transact confidently with new solutions, powering the next era of travel," Güney said, adding that Mastercard is committed to helping merchants build, connect and scale AI-powered shopping as agentic AI transforms consumer behavior.

Why Trip.com is moving up the funnel

Trip.com CEO Schubert Lou said AI is turning travel from a search experience into a more intelligent, personalized journey — a shift that moves the point of purchase earlier, into the agent itself.

"Ultimately, our role is not just to help travelers find the right trip, but to make their entire journey, from discovery and planning through to booking and payment, much simpler, faster and more connected," Lou said. He confirmed the collaboration is exploring how AI agents can securely complete travel transactions with travelers' explicit authorization.

The stake for Trip.com Group is distribution share across its four platforms — Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner and Qunar — as booking interfaces shift from apps and websites to conversational agents that can bundle flights, hotels, attractions and ancillaries in a single authorized transaction.

The acquiring angle

Martin Pitcock, head of e-commerce and omni-channel at Network International, said agentic commerce will reshape consumer interaction with digital services. "At Network International we believe agentic commerce will fundamentally reshape how consumers interact with digital services, reducing complexity and enabling more personalized purchasing experiences," Pitcock said.

He added that Network International is focused on providing secure, scalable infrastructure for that transition. "Together with Mastercard and Trip.com, we are helping accelerate the future of commerce, where intelligent agents can deliver greater convenience, choice and value for consumers and businesses alike," he said.

With a commercial launch roughly two years out, the partners now face the task of converting an ATM demonstration into authorized, tokenized transactions at scale — and convincing regional merchants and issuers that agentic bookings are a distribution channel worth building for.