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AI is evolving at an unbelievable pace. Just look at what happened in January — DeepSeek R1 dropped, and suddenly, we had a large language model (LLM) that runs on a smartphone and can compete with OpenAI’s models at a fraction of the cost. It’s also open-source.
There’s still some debate about the numbers, but one thing is clear: AI is pushing boundaries faster than anyone expected. That’s not just good news for researchers, but it’s also a game-changer for AI in payments.
In the next year, AI will fundamentally reshape our industry, changing how consumers shop, how merchants interact with them, and how we, as payment providers, power those experiences. Let’s talk about what’s coming.
AI Will Shake Up Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be. In the United States, brand loyalty dropped 14% in 2023 and another 13% in 2024, according to research from SAP Emarsys. Consumers — especially Gen Z — are starting to care less about brand names and more about experiences, values and ease of use.
I believe AI is about to accelerate that trend. Why? Because AI-powered shopping assistants make it effortless to compare products, find alternatives, and even “try on” clothes virtually. Tools like Amazon’s Rufus and Perplexity’s Buy with Pro are already making it easier for consumers to shop smarter—without ever setting foot in a store or even opening a new browser tab.
That means brands can’t just rely on name recognition anymore. They need to deliver seamless, personalized, and effortless experiences. And for us in the payments space, that means helping merchants provide invisible, frictionless checkout solutions that keep up with AI-driven shopping habits.
AI Will Make Payments Disappear
One of the things I’m most excited about is the potential for AI-powered personal financial managers (PFMs) to take the friction out of payments.
Today’s PFMs help people track spending and budgets. Unfortunately, most solutions tend to be clunky, overwhelming and not widely adopted. PFMs have a lot of potential, but are still underutilized. AI agents are about to change that. Unlike traditional PFMs that require direct user input, AI agents work autonomously, analyzing spending patterns, adjusting budgets in real time, and even making purchases automatically.
Imagine this: Your AI agent handles your weekly grocery shopping. It sees you’ve been spending a bit too much lately and adjusts your order to keep you on budget. Or, it tracks flight prices and books your next trip the second it spots a deal that meets your criteria. In either case, you can still hop into the app and make adjustments if you need to.
These scenarios don’t represent some distant future — we’re talking about the kind of automation AI could bring to payments in the next few years. Of course, adoption depends on two key factors:
- How effective these AI agents actually are
- Whether consumers trust them enough to hand over control
Trust will be the biggest hurdle of the two. But as we’ve seen in our research, people are open to AI in payments as long as it makes life easier and transparency is baked in. Because of that, I believe 2025 could be the year AI agents go mainstream in financial management.
AI Is Supercharging Payments Innovation
Beyond consumer-facing AI, we’ll also see this technology impact innovation itself. AI is already making developers more productive; one study from Microsoft, MIT, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania found AI-assisted developers are 26% more efficient. That’s huge.
Faster development cycles mean faster product launches and more time for creative problem-solving. And it’s not just developers that are benefiting — AI is improving efficiency across finance, HR, customer support, security and beyond. The less time we spend on repetitive tasks, the more time we have to build the next big thing in payments.
The Real AI Boom Is Just Beginning
I get it — AI fatigue is real. It’s been non-stop headlines for the last two years, and countless thought leaders have chimed in on the conversation around where this technology is headed. But it’s important to remember that we’re still at the beginning of this journey. Costs are going to keep dropping, capabilities will keep improving and adoption will skyrocket. AI is here to stay, and the only direction for the industry to move in is forward.
Over the next 12 to 24 months, I expect AI to reshape:
- How consumers shop and interact with brands
- How payments become even more invisible through AI-driven automation
- How fast and fearlessly we innovate in the payments space
I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead, and I hope you are too.
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