KEY FINDINGS

1

LEADERS DEMONSTRATE CONSISTENT INVESTMENT ACROSS CRITICAL AI ENABLERS

Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal lead Evident’s inaugural ranking of AI maturity within the payments sector. The leaders demonstrate a high degree of consistency across each pillar of the Index – outpacing their peers in three of the four areas of assessment: Talent, Innovation, and Transparency.

2

GREATER AI MATURITY DRIVES USE CASE DEPLOYMENT

Over the past two years, the 12 payment companies assessed documented nearly 100 AI use cases in press releases or investor relations materials. Payment companies with higher Index scores drove a larger share of the use cases found, demonstrating how sustained investment in AI enablers are accelerating use case deployment.

3

EVIDENCE OF ROI IS EMERGING, BUT ONLY AT LEADING COMPANIES

Nearly a third of disclosed AI use cases specify reported outcomes, including efficiency gains, risk reduction, and revenue uplift. Firms in the top half of the Index account for nearly 80% of these disclosures, further underscoring the link between AI maturity and the ability to scale use cases with demonstrable ROI.

4

NO COMPREHENSIVE ROI REPORTED ACROSS GROUP-WIDE AI ACTIVITIES (YET)

No payments company has disclosed realized or projected ROI across all enterprise or group-wide AI activities (yet). This represents a missed opportunity to demonstrate how AI investment is already delivering firmwide benefits. We see this happening at pace in adjacent sectors, where over 1-in-5 banks already do so.

5

CARD NETWORKS ACCOUNT FOR ALMOST HALF OF THE TALENT STACK

The three major card networks account for nearly half (48%) of the talent stack employed by companies in the Index. American Express has the most AI Developers, owing to its role as both card issuer and payment network. PayPal boasts 2.9x as much AI talent volume compared to other processors, owing to the breadth and depth of AI specialization within its diverse product portfolio.

6

AI RESEARCH IS THRIVING, BUT CONCENTRATED IN THE HANDS OF A FEW

While three quarters of payment companies have published AI research over the last three years, this output remains highly concentrated. Visa, PayPal, and Mastercard account for 85% of published work – signaling continued investment in capability-building that define and advance the “cutting edge” of AI innovation.

7

C-SUITE DRIVES AWARENESS OF AI STRATEGY AND EVOLVING PRIORITIES

Only half of payment companies call out AI as a critical enabler of business objectives in strategic documents or investor relations relations materials. In the absence of more comprehensive AI:ROI reporting, the industry remains more reliant on CEOs and senior leaders to message major milestones with regards to AI strategy.

8

ONLY 1-IN-3 PUBLISH RESPONSIBLE AI PRINCIPLES

Although half of payment companies explicitly allude to Responsible AI (RAI) principles in strategy documents or external communications, only a third openly publish these tenets. Among these, Mastercard and PayPal are the only companies to go the extra mile in demonstrating active operational implementation.