PURCHASE, N.Y.—Mastercard has introduced a new artificial intelligence offering aimed at helping small businesses manage operations more effectively, unveiling a platform that provides digital executive-style support for functions such as finance, security and marketing.
The company announced Tuesday that its new Virtual C-Suite is a collection of agentic AI tools designed to act as a “digital executive” for small-business owners, helping them handle the growing complexity of running their companies.
According to Mastercard, the platform integrates artificial intelligence agents with the accounting systems, business software and banking applications that small businesses already use. Once embedded into those systems, the tools can analyze business performance, identify potential opportunities and risks, and recommend actions aimed at improving growth and operational efficiency.
‘Buried in Spreadsheets’
“Small businesses are the cornerstones of communities, but it’s easy for owners to lose sight of the passions that inspired them when they’re buried in spreadsheets and stretched across multiple roles,” said Mark Barnett in a news release.
“We hear these pressures from entrepreneurs every day,” Barnett said. “With Virtual C-Suite, we are bringing the innovative technology, quality data at scale, and strategic expertise usually available to large enterprises to small business owners.”
‘Lean Teams’
Mastercard said small and medium-sized businesses account for roughly 90% of companies worldwide and more than half of global employment. Despite their economic importance, the company said many small businesses operate with lean teams and often lack dedicated specialists to handle areas such as finance, marketing and cybersecurity.
The Virtual C-Suite is designed to address those challenges by combining agentic AI with data and software integrations to deliver insights and recommendations tailored to each business, according to the company.
Mastercard said the platform is intended to help small-business owners better manage operations while allowing them to focus more on growing their companies.
