Page 24 - GS250502

CoverStory

Exception item transactions must be risks earlier," he said. It's not about cutting corners. "It's
about aligning the technology with what really matters in
monitored daily to ensure any item that our ecosystem: safety, speed and reliability."
was debited is either correspondingly Moody's also addressed this issue. "At Moody's, we strong-
assessed to a merchant or rejected ly believe that AI is not a replacement for human expertise
back to the issuer ... and within the but a catalyst for more informed, efficient and resilient
financial decision-making. By embracing AI as a tool for
prescribed time frames. augmentation rather than substitution, institutions can
unlock new opportunities to enhance risk management,"
the firm wrote.
Sundt offered the example of a merchant having problems
with a terminal. To solve the problem, he stated, one AI Payments: the next frontier
agent might check the firmware, another might diagnose With the containment of fraud front and center, the next
the network and a third could verify account status, "all in big step for agentic AI is payments. This is no one-off pie
the background, no ticket required." Stax uses agentic AI in the sky idea. Dominant card brands Visa and Master-
extensively but keeps humans in the loop, he added. card and payments powerhouse PayPal all have agentic

payment schemes in the works.
A key focus of agentic AI today is merchant onboarding
and risk vetting. "We're training agents to analyze signals Visa revealed in April powerful AI advancements that
like business longevity, website presence, and banking help consumers find and buy online with AI. "Histori-
history to detect potential fraud before onboarding cally, Visa has used AI to protect consumers, harnessing
begins," Sundt wrote. But they don't make final decisions. it to combat fraud," Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said dur-
Every decision flows through human validation before ing an April product drop. "Now we will also enable AI to
action is taken, he added. empower consumers, fundamentally shifting digital com-
merce to make it more personal, more relevant and more
As with every advancement in technology, there is a delightful."
downside. While the power of agentic AI is undeniable, it
also introduces new risks, notably fraud risks. "AI can be McInerney added that "For any AI commerce use case to
weaponized just as easily as it can be used for defense," take hold, the payment is a critical enabler of success. If
Sundt said, adding that Stax is "laser focused" on using there is no payment, there is no commerce. That's the ex-
agentic AI to bolster fraud detection, notably during pertise and trust that Visa brings."
merchant onboarding and settlement review.
Visa is collaborating with AI platforms and brands that
Sundt mentioned, for example, monitoring merchants for consumers work with regularly, including the AI compa-
refund patterns, like refunding transactions to different ny Anthropic, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity
cards or batch manipulation. "These aren't one-off issues (an AI-powered search engine), Stripe and Samsung.
– they're systemic risks we can now catch faster using
AI," he noted. While agentic AI creates new possibilities, "We see tremendous potential for the role AI agents will
it's not a replacement for people; it's a framework, Sundt play in commerce from streamlining 'regular' transaction-
explained. "When used thoughtfully, it gives us the ability driven tasks such as ordering groceries, to more sophisti-
to solve very targeted problems, move faster, and surface
cated search and decision-making like securing that hard-
Call me today! to-get restaurant reservation or concert ticket," said Jack
Let me help you Forestell, Visa's chief product officer and strategy officer.
with your "This," he added, "will be a transformative change, bring-
advertising ing more magic and convenience to the consumer experi-
success. ence and creating a new world that will forever change
707-284-1693 how we shop and buy."
Also in April, Mastercard introduced Mastercard Agent
Pay, which builds upon proven tokenization capabilities
that already power global commerce solutions like mobile
contactless payments, secure card-on-file, recurring pay-
ments and subscriptions. "This helps unlock an agentic
R R ick Aston commerce future where consumers and businesses can
transact with trust, security and control," Mastercard said
Senior Media Partnership Specialist in a press release.
Rick@greensheet.com
24