Draining The Trough of Disillusionment
Karen Webster
Founder and CEO PYMNTS | Board Member and Advisor | Platform and Payments Industry Expert
CFOs + GenAI = a happy marriage.
“Part of it may be that the conversation is being shaped by the wrong voices. Or that we’re using outdated frameworks to evaluate a fundamentally different kind of innovation. Or perhaps we’re just not looking at the data that really matters.”
In my latest piece, I unpack why GenAI’s so-called “trough of disillusionment” says more about media fatigue than market reality (with 14 months of data to back it up), and why GenAI’s next 30 months may be even more important than its first.
We’d be remiss to ignore remittances.
“Our vision, in one sentence, is to transform lives with trusted financial services that transcend borders.” – Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer
Here’s a little poem: In a world where 250 million people live outside the country in which they were born, and uncertainty is prevalent, Remitly CEO Matt Oppenheimer stops by to talk about why remittances’ impact on the global economy couldn’t be more relevant.
Putting the V into Customer Lifetime
“44% of financial institutions that issue all three types of cards (debit, credit and prepaid) report high CLTV” – PYMNTS Intelligence
New research from a Visa-commissioned PYMNTS Intelligence report identifies data and diversity as what differentiates best-in-class modern card issuers from the rest.
Can’t think longer term than next week.
“38% of product heads at middle-market goods firms say the levies have caused them to delay, cancel or rework product launches or market strategies outright.” – PYMNTS Intelligence
PYMNTS Intelligence talked to 60 senior product people at middle-market goods and retail companies for this report that details how they’ve been forced to trade long-term technology strategies for short-term fixes in the latest edition of our 2025 Certainty Project.
When Agents do the Banking.
“The only actors that will be executing financial transactions directly will be AI actors" – Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville
Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville takes us inside his plans for the world’s first “AI-native” financial institution. It’s a fascinating discussion where the co-founder of Circle , and a principal architect of the USDC stablecoin, explains how you develop an identity protocol that allows fingerprintless AI actors to prove they’re acting on our behalf.
Retail Bummer
“Half of Mexican shoppers wanted to use cross-channel features the last time they shopped, 30% said they were not available.” – PYMNTS Intelligence
The new 2025 Global Digital Shopping Index: Mexico Edition (a PYMNTS Intelligence collaboration w/ Visa) examines how Mexico is rapidly becoming a mobile-first consumer market, and areas (like cross-channel shopping) that are still ripe for innovation.
