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August 2025 • Issue 25:08:02

Advisory Board
Advisory Board

AI in action: What's working

in payments and what's not

n our first August issue, advisory board members Manager (VRM), Visa Advanced Authorization (VAA)
shared how they're putting AI to work today, from and Visa Deep Authorization (VDA), claims to use AI to
fraud prevention to underwriting and beyond. In this effectively help with risk scoring, which prevents fraud
I installment, the conversation widens. Members high- and gets more legitimate transactions approved.
light what's working, where AI initiatives fall short and
how its rapid evolution may upend traditional ISO models. There are also lenders like Upstart that are pulling in
alternative data to approve more borrowers without having
We wish to thank Benjamin Abel, Mark Dunn and Dee to expand their overall risk tolerance. And you have Stripe,
Karawadra for taking time to share their perspectives which uses what they call "intelligent payment routing,"
herein. And we appreciate all advisory board members where they claim their AI can predict which acquiring
who participated in this Q&A. Below are the questions, banks, card networks or processing paths are most likely to
followed by their responses: approve a given transaction based on factors like card type,
issuing bank behavior, geographic region, currency, time of
1. Have you implemented AI in your business? If day and even past declines.
so, what have you learned—successes, challenges
or unexpected outcomes? We can dig into the data to see how effective each truly is,
but they are practical, high-impact uses where AI looks to
2. In your view, how is the broader payments really shine because the data is strong and the goals are
and fintech ecosystem leveraging AI effectively clear.
today? Are there any high-profile efforts that
haven't lived up to expectations?

3. Looking ahead, how do you see your business, Contributed articles inside by:
and the industry at large, evolving with AI in the
mix? Please share any specific trends, innova-
tions or concerns you anticipate. Allen Kopelman .....................................................................................16
Viktoria Soltesz ......................................................................................19
Benjamin Abel Adam Atlas ..............................................................................................22
BAMS
Elie Y. Katz ...............................................................................................28
AI, in many industries not just ours, is definitely the shiny Mark Van Horn .......................................................................................30
new tool in the toolbox with everyone trying to find a use.
I think we have seen some companies effectively leverage Chad Otar ................................................................................................32
it in fraud prevention, underwriting and optimizing Ross Taylor ..............................................................................................34
payments, but not all rollouts have gone as smoothly
as hoped. Visa's Protect suite, which includes Visa Risk
Continued on page 26