Mastercard’s Nili Klenoff: One-Third of Consumers Would Let an Agent Spend $1,000 on Their Behalf, Even Without Asking First
As agentic commerce promises to further ease the friction that still hinders online shopping, earning consumers’ trust is the foundational factor that will determine greater adoption.
Still, consumers’ embrace of agentic commerce may actually be moving faster than most marketers realize. A recent Mastercard survey found that 33% of consumers would already trust an AI agent to spend up to $1,000 on their behalf without prior approval — a data point that reframes the entire trust conversation around AI-driven shopping.
“We’re seeing this shift taking place for consumers,” Nili Klenoff, evp of Mastercard Commerce Media, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. “The biggest opportunity is really the shift from predictive insights to being able to respond in real time to the signals with relevant and measurable content.”
That opportunity comes with a significant caveat. When agents make wrong calls —such as buying a red sweater on final sale when the consumer wanted a blue one — trust erodes fast and at scale.
Not the same thing
The industry needs to delineate between agentic commerce and agentic marketing, in Klenoff’s view. In her telling, the former is a machine making purchases on a consumer’s behalf; the latter involves AI helping brands show up with greater relevance and discoverability.
“What consumers are going to notice most is those two being seamless, creating an integrated consumer experience. I think they’re also going to notice when those two are not,” Klenoff said.
Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent and Agent Pay frameworks are designed to build the governance infrastructure that makes both sides of that equation trustworthy — ensuring that everyone in the ecosystem, consumer and brand alike, knows the transaction was legitimate.
Personalization requires trust
A 2024 Deloitte study found that up to 80% of consumers want personalized brand experiences and would spend up to 50% more when brands deliver them. But Klenoff is direct about the precondition.
“You can’t have personalization without trust. Trust is the foundation of any consumer relationship. It really needs to be built into that experience from the start,” Klenoff said. “There needing to be an exchange of value for the consumer. It needs to be helpful. It needs to be useful for them.”
Answering AI’s front door question
Even as AI becomes the entry point for product discovery, brands still face the same fundamental questions: who is this consumer? where are they in the buying cycle, what message will resonate? Klenoff posited that commerce media provides the purchase-signal intelligence to answer them.
“AI may become the new front door to shopping, but brands still contend with the same questions that they contend with across any other environment,” Klenoff said. “Commerce media is an essential service because it helps provide insight that’s rooted in real outcomes to drive relevant and contextual messages for the consumer.”
The human element scales
Automation handles tasks and optimizes decisions, but brand building still requires human empathy, judgment, and the capacity to create authentic consumer connections that algorithms cannot replicate.
“AI ultimately may help us automate tasks, optimize decisions, but the most important part of commerce remains deeply human. That’s the trust. It’s the creativity. It’s the connection,” Klenoff said. “I don’t think the future is ‘man versus the machine.’ This is about how we use AI to work smarter so that we can focus on creating those connections and those experiences that are valuable to consumers in those moments that matter most.”
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
As agentic commerce promises to further ease the friction that still hinders online shopping, earning consumers’ trust is the foundational factor that will determine greater adoption.
Still, consumers’ embrace of agentic commerce may actually be moving faster than most marketers realize. A recent Mastercard survey found that 33% of consumers would already trust an AI agent to spend up to $1,000 on their behalf without prior approval — a data point that reframes the entire trust conversation around AI-driven shopping.
“We’re seeing this shift taking place for consumers,” Nili Klenoff, evp of Mastercard Commerce Media, told Beet.TV contributor David Kaplan. “The biggest opportunity is really the shift from predictive insights to being able to respond in real time to the signals with relevant and measurable content.”
That opportunity comes with a significant caveat. When agents make wrong calls —such as buying a red sweater on final sale when the consumer wanted a blue one — trust erodes fast and at scale.
Not the same thing
The industry needs to delineate between agentic commerce and agentic marketing, in Klenoff’s view. In her telling, the former is a machine making purchases on a consumer’s behalf; the latter involves AI helping brands show up with greater relevance and discoverability.
“What consumers are going to notice most is those two being seamless, creating an integrated consumer experience. I think they’re also going to notice when those two are not,” Klenoff said.
Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent and Agent Pay frameworks are designed to build the governance infrastructure that makes both sides of that equation trustworthy — ensuring that everyone in the ecosystem, consumer and brand alike, knows the transaction was legitimate.
Personalization requires trust
A 2024 Deloitte study found that up to 80% of consumers want personalized brand experiences and would spend up to 50% more when brands deliver them. But Klenoff is direct about the precondition.
“You can’t have personalization without trust. Trust is the foundation of any consumer relationship. It really needs to be built into that experience from the start,” Klenoff said. “There needing to be an exchange of value for the consumer. It needs to be helpful. It needs to be useful for them.”
Answering AI’s front door question
Even as AI becomes the entry point for product discovery, brands still face the same fundamental questions: who is this consumer? where are they in the buying cycle, what message will resonate? Klenoff posited that commerce media provides the purchase-signal intelligence to answer them.
“AI may become the new front door to shopping, but brands still contend with the same questions that they contend with across any other environment,” Klenoff said. “Commerce media is an essential service because it helps provide insight that’s rooted in real outcomes to drive relevant and contextual messages for the consumer.”
The human element scales
Automation handles tasks and optimizes decisions, but brand building still requires human empathy, judgment, and the capacity to create authentic consumer connections that algorithms cannot replicate.
“AI ultimately may help us automate tasks, optimize decisions, but the most important part of commerce remains deeply human. That’s the trust. It’s the creativity. It’s the connection,” Klenoff said. “I don’t think the future is ‘man versus the machine.’ This is about how we use AI to work smarter so that we can focus on creating those connections and those experiences that are valuable to consumers in those moments that matter most.”
You’re watching “From Discovery to Purchase: AI’s New Role in Retail,” a Beet.TV Leadership Series at Cannes Lions 2026, presented by Best Buy Ads. For more videos from this series, visit this page. You can find all of our coverage from Cannes Lions 2026 here.
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