Fintechs, big tech, and payment players are using genAI to redefine finance. To compete, banks must pair strategic genAI investment with hyper-personalization and human support to earn customer trust and loyalty.

Coinbase debuted Payments MCP so that AI agents can access on-chain wallets, blockchain onramps, and stablecoin payments, per a blog post. Crypto payment rails don’t yet have market consolidation at the scale of the Mastercard-Visa duopoly. Crypto platforms that enable a broad range of commerce can lock up dominant positions as more mainstream payment platforms facilitate crypto and more retailers accept it. However, convincing consumers of the benefits of stablecoin will take time. Only 1.8% of the US population currently transact with crypto—but we anticipate that share to almost double by 2027, per our forecast.

Visa launched the Trusted Agent Protocol, infrastructure meant to facilitate secure communication between AI agents and merchants to complete transactions, per a press release. Fully operationalized agentic commerce will take time to get off the ground. However, Visa’s endorsement of agentic commerce demands reluctant AI-adopters to quickly gear themselves for a new age of payment facilitation, or face irrelevance. Major payment rails especially need to convince merchants not to abandon their infrastructure to pursue things like blockchain-based transactions, as major retailers like Walmart and Amazon try to save money on fees. Offering seamless agentic commerce can entice these retailers to stay loyal.

With more signals than ever, and the AI tools to make sense of the data, retail brands can find new ways to engage customers and drive business value. But they need firm strategies and vision to avoid getting lost in the numbers, and many are finding in-store impact with digital efforts. At Advertising Week New York (AWNY), marketing heads at top brands, including McDonald’s, Gap Inc., bp and Visa, discussed their approaches to driving business value by elevating value for customers.

Mastercard launched a commerce media network. Unlike rival networks, Mastercard already has a set of anchor partnerships, including Citi, WPP, American Airlines, and Microsoft. Mastercard will remain the biggest fish in the commerce network media pond—barring Visa’s entrance into the space. Until then, Mastercard has a chance to set the standard for how payment networks can monetize their first-party data.

Visa launched the Visa Commercial Services (VCS) Hub, a platform that helps issuers and fintech companies deliver commercial payment solutions and embedded finance services backed by the power of genAI. If AI and stablecoins significantly disrupt traditional payment rails, Visa can still offer essential commerce solutions to issuers and fintechs, with businesses benefiting from the convenience of gaining access to tools that otherwise would require a separate contract with another provider.

The Trump administration overhauled the H-1B visa program by imposing a $100,000 fee on successful applications, a massive cost increase that is expected to create significant hiring hurdles for the finance industry. The banking talent pipeline is heading toward a painful reckoning. The firms that rely on a continuous stream of junior talent to feed their development teams will suffer most—which will push FIs to change how they staff. The inevitable outcome isn't necessarily hiring more high-skilled US workers, but a forced acceleration of the trend toward offshoring critical technology.

President Donald Trump is continuing his immigration crackdown with a signed proclamation that adds a $100,000 fee to all new applications for H-1B visas, potentially complicating and clamping down on the market for AI-skilled workers in the US. While intended to spur domestic hiring, the reality is that the US lacks sufficient AI training infrastructure to meet current demand. With a pre-existing lack of employer investment in workforce development to grow US employees’ AI skills, the policy risks shrinking the AI talent pool even more and slowing innovation.

The news: Visa will give developers new tools to adapt to the rise of agentic commerce on its platforms, per PYMNTS. But risks abound—uneven usability, haphazard standardization across issuers and merchants, and trepidation from consumers about using the tech: Just 30% of US consumers say they trust AI to make purchases for them, per Kantar. It is unlikely that customers will rapidly feel that using an online agent is as safe as placing an order themselves—and every mistake felt by merchants, consumers, and issuers on the agentic rollout will reinforce those opinions.

Visa’s retreat reflects regulatory chaos and rising data access fees, signaling broader instability for fintechs and the future of “open” banking in America.

Real-time payments adoption is still in its infancy in the US. But business and consumer demand are increasing, providing a growth opportunity for banks and customer-facing payment providers.

The news: Mastercard and Visa reported strong revenue growth in their most recent quarters. Visa’s net revenues rose 14% YoY in its fiscal year Q3 (ended June 30, 2025). Mastercard’s net revenues for the period rose 17% YoY. Our take: Both Visa and Mastercard understand that they need to innovate to keep their infrastructure competitive in light of the explosion of alternative payment rails—most recently stablecoin initiatives, made possible by the recent passage of the Genius Act.

The news: Capital One’s net revenues increased 25% QoQ to $12.5 billion—one of the many dramatic changes after its merger with Discover.Our take: The scale of Capital One’s merger is eyewatering. As the issuer looking to maximize its yields, it can both offer more attractive credit and debit products within a regulatory environment that is friendly to ambitious growth.

AI is upending every aspect of marketing, from neuro-contextual ads that read emotions to autonomous shopping agents that make purchasing decisions. As tech giants consolidate control of the sector, six pivotal trends are reshaping advertising, search, and commerce.

The news: Mastercard launched the World Legend Mastercard, a premium card for higher-spending customers, alongside an overhaul of rewards and perks across the entire Mastercard Collection. Our take: We anticipate that card networks will jockey for the most premium cards as issuers cater to wealthy consumers’ reward wish lists.

Tariff uncertainty, billion-dollar merger and acquisition deals, and a jump in social commerce will create new dynamics in the payments industry in H2 2025. Burgeoning tech like agentic AI and stablecoins will further shake up the space.

This decision feeds into the rising enthusiasm for stablecoin as the future of payments.

With seamless in-app purchases coming, PayPal could turn Perplexity into a trusted, AI-driven checkout hub—especially for younger, AI-hungry consumers.

Payment providers are investing in AI to help streamline and personalize both the merchant and customer experiences

The tech is dominating recent headlines as retailer and consumer interest explodes