Business and consumers are already benefiting from data-driven platforms that enhance payment system capabilities.
Convenience has long been a driving force for innovation. Checks and card receipts streamlined back-office operations and helped merchants understand the spending habits of their customers. ‘How to buy’ went hand in hand with ‘what to buy’ as payment systems integrated new technologies to keep pace with consumer demand and business needs. While consumers benefit from these retail payment innovations, the outlook for businesses is also improving.
Role and Benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in digital payments
The four key areas driving today’s digital payment systems are: security, speed, personalization, and behavior. In today’s competitive consumer environment, what links these crucial elements is, increasingly, Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Digital payment products and platforms that utilize AI have exploded in growth over a few short years. Along with ML (machine learning), AI is a critical feature of any data-driven system, which can be used by banks and other financial institutions for seamless and secure payment experiences. Globally, 70% of all financial services firms are using machine learning to predict cash flow, detect fraud and analyze credit scores.[1]
One of the core benefits of AI is its predictive ability. By assessing, analyzing, and modeling huge volumes of behavioral data, for example, AI-powered platforms can deliver highly specific insights about spending patterns and trends. In turn, this data can help banks and financial institutions to better tailor their products and services, simultaneously generating greater profits, reducing operating costs, and improving B2C relationships. As for customers AI solves most of problems, they face on delays with transaction processing and authorization, combined with the subsequent lag-time in updating account balances.
More about VisaNet + AI connection
The VisaNet +AI suite of services, including Smarter Posting and Smarter Stand-In Processing (STP) – is transforming the way payments are made every day, reducing the consumer impact of service disruptions and bridging the time-gap between payment authorization and transaction clearing. Moreover, AI became a foundational tool in the area of security and fraud protection. Within the last five years, Visa invested over $10 billion in technology, including to reduce fraud. In 2022, Visa helped prevent an estimated $27 billion fraud worldwide. Next to VisaNet, AI ensures businesses and customers avoid financial loss. It also identifies, investigates, and prevents attacks on the payment ecosystem.
„We at Visa are extremely proud and thrilled to have a historically low level of fraud worldwide. The reason for such an amazing result lies in the effective utilization of AI and machine learning. Visa provides its cardholders with a risk-scoring solution, which makes it possible for our clients across the globe to make thoughtful decisions based on our estimations, calculated with the help of machine learning and behavioral data,” says Larysa Makarova, Head of Risks, in Ukraine, Georgia, and CISSEE at Visa.
She refers to Georgia as well and states that Visa in Georgia supports the further development of AI and highlights that Georgia is a specific market in a very positive sense. Georgia is also the number one country globally according to VisaNet data as of February 2023 in terms of contactless payments penetration. At the same time, there is the least amount of fraud across the CEMEA region, which is a spectacular achievement for the country.
As Visa Head of Risks, responsible for 17 markets, believes it is due to tokenization which actively develops in the country both in card-present and card-not-present environments. “At Visa, we observe that our cardholders in Georgia are becoming more sophisticated in using various payment methods,” Larysa Makarova said.
[1] The Payments Association, Using AI Intelligently: Smart ways to use Artificial Intelligence in Payments 2021
