Mastercard’s Cheryl Guerin on the next frontier of payments: AI-driven agent pay

For nearly three decades, Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign has managed a rare feat in marketing: enduring cultural relevance. Even today, in an era defined by digital-first behaviors and an accelerating wave of AI adoption, Mastercard continues to innovate with its messaging and cardholder technology.

Cheryl Guerin, executive vice president of global brand strategy and innovation at Mastercard, breaks down how the brand is approaching AI with caution and conviction, using the technology to serve small businesses, anticipate cultural trends and shape the next frontier of payments through emerging agent-based tools.

Above all, though, Guerin reminds marketers that even as technology accelerates, humanity must stay at the center.

The following conversation has been edited for clarity and consistency:

Mastercard’s “Priceless” campaign is arguably one of the most enduring and recognizable campaigns in marketing history. How have you managed to keep it relevant in a digital first world while still preserving its emotional core?

It’s hard to believe that “Priceless” is nearly 30 years young, as we call it. It was based on an insight that experiences matter more than things, so it was human at its core. This insight has only grown in resonance over the last 30 years. We’ve been able to evolve it with the times and culture. What started out as observing priceless moments in ads became creating and curating priceless experiences in real life for our cardholders and inspiring priceless movements with deep purpose. We’ve continued to hit a chord with people that emotionally connects.

And now we’re living in this AI era that is rapidly transforming just about everything. How is Mastercard using AI, and how are you using it responsibly as a major financial brand?

There’s two parts to how we’re looking at AI. First and foremost, responsibility is at its core: in how we’re using AI, the governance around it, ensuring it doesn’t have bias and responsible sourcing.

The other side is making sure it’s purposeful. A perfect example of this is small-business AI. We created a small-business conversational mentor that democratizes guidance and information on an ongoing basis. And we sourced responsible content from media partners like Blavity, Univision and Group Black.

How are you going about actually marketing that, too, especially to small businesses?

It’s a combination of things. For one, we work with real small-business owners. So those influencers and creators in their own right are promoting small-business AI. We promote it on our website and ask: How do you move your business and grow it in a digital world? And then the [other way we market it]is through partners like Operation Hope, who are promoting it on their site to all of those small businesses that participate with that community.

When it comes to marketing channels, Mastercard is omnipresent. What does being omnichannel really mean this year, and how does it strengthen that emotional connection to consumers?

To me, it’s about surrounding your consumer on any channel in their lives. We have something called Digital Engine, and it’s our own AI tool that does social listening. We’ve been using social listening for a few years now and we can actually predict trends through that tool, and then we’re able to match content that ties to those trends in culture and passions, whether it’s music, entertainment or sports, etc. We’re able to serve up the right content to the right person at the right time with a human checkpoint.

Looking ahead, where do you see the next frontier between that connection between technology, finance and human connectivity?

Agent pay is something that’s going to be interesting. We’ve all longed to have an assistant that helps us book travel, make recommendations, help with your kids’ birthday party. With Agent Pay, we’re going to have an assistant just like we’ve always dreamed of. But if you’re going to enable payments, you want it to be trusted, you want to have the backing of a Mastercard that enables you to have the same protections you’ve had in the real world when you’re making a purchase, even more so when an agent is making it on your behalf. And, so, I think that’s the next frontier.

With this Mastercard AI tool coming to the market, do you foresee adoption taking some time?

It will take some time, like with anything. With e-commerce, for instance, we saw usage increase dramatically over COVID. There were so many people that hadn’t crossed over yet. So with AI, we’ll see early adopters, and then people who, once they understand the trust and the backing that you get with a Mastercard, you’ll see it grow.

What is one thing marketers need to prioritize as AI increases its usage?

It’s really important that we focus certainly on technology. It’s important to understand the technology. Marketers are now more in technology than even technologists, but we cannot forget the humanity. With anything you are building in tech, deep human insights need to be there. Otherwise, you won’t have the purpose and the connection that is really needed to differentiate and stand out in this world of AI.