Sunrate and Mastercard Release White Paper on Agentic AI and B2B Global Payments

SHANGHAI – Payment and treasury management platform Sunrate and global technology company Mastercard have unveiled a joint white paper analyzing the role of Agentic AI in cross-border B2B payments. The document, titled "Beyond Automation: Defining Agentic Global Payments," was released at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai.

The white paper is positioned as one of the first in the payments industry to examine how AI agents are reshaping enterprise payment operations. It proposes that cross-border payments are evolving beyond automation into a stage of "Autonomy," where AI agents can independently orchestrate and optimize end-to-end payment and treasury workflows within defined governance frameworks.

The report identifies 16 major pain points across the B2B payment lifecycle and outlines 13 high-value AI use cases. These applications span supplier onboarding, accounts payable and receivable, virtual commercial cards, payment routing, foreign exchange management, compliance screening, fraud detection, reconciliation, and conversational support. It emphasizes that successful adoption of agentic payments hinges on governance, transparency, security, and ecosystem collaboration, in addition to technological capability.

Paul Meng, Co-founder and CEO of Sunrate, stated that as businesses expand internationally, AI agents are poised to fundamentally reshape how enterprises manage global payments. Anouska Ladds, Executive Vice President at Mastercard, added that accountability and a clear chain of action are crucial for autonomous payment decisions to scale effectively beyond pilot phases.