TRENDS AND INSIGHTS AI: The Next Frontier

For years, the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) captured our imagination, envisioning a future where technology would drive advancements in efficiency and capability. Today, that future is a reality, with AI actively disrupting and reshaping societies and economies at their core.

Visa recognized AI's transformative power over 30 years ago, and its importance continues to grow. In the last decade, we have invested over $3 billion¹ in AI and data infrastructure, not only to proactively combat fraud, but also to enable the safer, smarter movement of money. Today, with a technology platform powering over 100 AI-driven products,² Visa champions the responsible use of AI, especially in building and maintaining consumer trust.

All in when it comes to generative AI

The future of payments in digital, flexible and consumer-driven – and Visa is leading the charge by harnessing generative AI to transform productivity and elevate the payments ecosystem.

For developers, Visa introduced tools like GitHub Copilot and a secure instance of GPT-4, enabling faster innovation with text or voice-driven interactions to simplify development. Meanwhile, Visa’s $100 million Generative AI Ventures³ initiative is fueling the next wave of companies shaping the future of commerce and payments through cutting-edge AI technologies.

Visa’s Advisory practice is empowering clients to unlock AI’s potential to grow and redefine how they serve their own customers through acquisition, engagement, retention, and risk management.

Talent acquisition in another key aspect of Visa’s gen AI strategy. Recognizing that the financial services sector may face challenges due to a shortage of specialized talent and expertise, Visa is dedicated to attracting and retaining the necessary professionals to advance its gen AI initiatives.

Mitigating fraud in a world powered by generative AI

Technological advancements, while transformative, also bring heightened risks of fraud. The global cost of cybercrime, estimated at $7 trillion in 2022, is projected to soar to $10.5 trillion by 2025.⁴ Consumer-targeted scams are increasing in complexity and volume, which resulted in an estimated $1 trillion in financial losses in 2023⁵ alone.

As the world's largest SaaS platform, Visa combats cybercrime by deploying cutting-edge tools, expertise, and processes to identify and mitigate fraud, investing over $10 billion in technology in the last five years. The impact is undeniable: In the past year, Visa blocked $40 billion in fraudulent payment value, prevented 80 million fraudulent transactions, and averted over $122 million in estimated e-commerce fraud through malware detection.⁶ Furthermore, Visa recently enhanced its Visa Account Attack Intelligence (VAAI) offering with the VAAI Score, a new tool leveraging generative AI to identify and score enumeration attacks.

How secure, automated transactions will power AI shopping

Generative AI is set to revolutionize commerce beyond e-commerce and mobile shopping, ushering in an era of agentic commerce. This new paradigm leverages AI-powered shopping agents to personalize the consumer experience like never before.⁷ Equipped with a deep understanding of individual and family needs — including preferences, existing inventory, and budget — these intelligent agents will save consumers significant time and money. Merchants will need to develop new capabilities and invest in modern infrastructure to thrive in this era, rethinking traditional operating models.

Payments will play a critical role in the success of agentic commerce. Seamless integration is key, along with leveraging rich transactional data while prioritizing user privacy and control. Similar to payment card tokenization, consumers will selectively share purchase data insights with their AI agents. This controlled data sharing will fuel personalized recommendations and automated purchasing decisions, creating a dynamic, customized shopping experience without compromising user privacy.

Preparing for a post quantum era

The next technological wave, quantum computing, is set to reshape our world within 15 to 20 years. Unlike classical computers, quantum computing uses qubits that exist as both zero and one simultaneously, unleashing unprecedented computational power.

Quantum AI and payments

The fusion of quantum computing and AI, or quantum AI, promises to revolutionize payments. One immediate area for quantum AI to play within payments is through quantum encryption algorithms that enhance the security of financial transactions. Quantum key distribution (QKD) offers the promise of unbreakable encryption, crucial in a world where malicious actors are already stockpiling encrypted data in anticipation of quantum decryption capabilities.⁸

Furthermore, quantum algorithms will revolutionize fraud detection and risk management within financial institutions by enabling real-time processing of massive datasets and complex scenarios, far exceeding the capabilities of current systems.

Visa’s Role

Visa has been actively engaged in post-quantum cryptography research for the past decade, publishing research, collaborating with standards bodies, and developing next-generation cryptographic protocols resistant to quantum computer attacks. Visa Research, with over 50 patents and 64 publications, has driven significant advancements in this field.

Additionally, Visa collaborates with industry bodies like the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which recently finalized the first post-quantum encryption standards.

We’re innovating responsibly and are continuously developing

Visa advocates for a collaborative, global approach to AI regulation, working with governments, regulators, policymakers, academia, and industry partners to emphasise the need for frameworks that address potential risks, while fostering innovation. AI doesn’t know borders, so there must be a global, interoperable approach across jurisdictions and sectors.

At Visa, we believe that flexible, adaptable regulations are essential given the rapid evolution of AI, with transparency in model operation crucial for building trust. Informing this perspective is Visa’s own experience operating within a heavily regulated industry, highlighting the importance of regulations to support, rather than stifle, beneficial AI advancements.

Focused on the future

Visa has been pioneering AI since 1993 and today our platform is among the most powerful examples of the tangible benefits of AI. The arrival of generative AI technology marks a pivotal moment in human history; realistic data-driven responses can now be generated using large language models while simultaneously processing complex data patterns, resulting in real-time and user-friendly answers. There is limitless potential for innovation.

The next wave of momentum carries even greater opportunities ahead, and Visa is looking forward to what can be accomplished through collaborations.

All brand names, logos and/or trademarks are the property of their respective owners, are used for identification purposes only, and do not necessarily imply product endorsement or affiliation with Visa.

1. 30 years of AI and counting, Rajat Taneja, President of Technology, Visa, 14 September 2023
2. How generative AI is heralding a payments revolution across Asia Pacific, visa.com/sg (Singapore)
3. Visa Launches $100 million Generative AI Ventures Initiative
4. The Latest 2025 Cyber Crime Statistics, Charles Griffith - Director of Technology and Innovation at AAG, 1 January 2025
5. Biannual Threats Report - A Payment Ecosystem Report by Visa Payment Fraud Disruption Global States of Scam Report, GASA, December 2023
6. Visa Payment Fraud Disruption Source; Visa Payment Fraud Disruption scorecard
7. The Dawn of the Agentic Commerce Era – Putting Gen AI to Work for Shoppers, Scott Friend, 14 November 2024
8. The Impact Quantum-Powered AI Could Have on Payments | PYMNTS.com