Shaping Payments of Tomorrow: From AI to Real-Time Payments

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, April 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The payments landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by rapid advancements in technology and evolving consumer preferences. Here are four key trends that we believe will shape the future of payments.

Trend 1: Leveraging AI against fraud

AI will play a crucial role in personalising payment experiences and enhancing fraud detection capabilities. Deep learning algorithms will become more sophisticated in analysing transaction patterns and identifying potential risks in real-time.

Visa has been at the centre of AI in payments and invested $3.3 billion in our AI and data infrastructure over the last decade. This year, we introduced three new AI-powered risk and fraud prevention solutions, as part of the Visa Protect suite, that are designed to reduce fraud across immediate Account to Account (A2A) and card-not-present (CNP) payments, for transactions on and off Visa's network. There is immense potential in the next generation of AI to help transform the payments experience, making it more secure and intuitive.

Trend 2: Digital identity simplifies authentication  

For years, passwords, security questions, even card numbers have served as stand-ins for individuals, and fraudsters have taken advantage of this fact. In the future, authentication will rely on highly secure credentials, namely one's face, fingerprints, or other biometrics.

Visa has introduced solutions such as Click to Pay and Visa Payment Passkey to reduce reliance on traditional PINs and passwords and elevate the payment checkout experience. Visa Click to Pay eliminates clunky checkout processes and reduces the number of steps consumers require to pay for their online purchases.

Visa Payment Passkey requires consumers to do a one-time set-up to bind their devices and authenticate them at participating merchants, removing friction from the online checkout process.

Moving forward, centering biometric markers in payments authentication, in line with the best data privacy, cybersecurity, and AI governance practices will help make the checkout process more convenient and secure, benefiting both consumers and businesses.

Trend 3: Cross-border payments travel fast 

Cross-border money movement has historically been B2B-focused and primarily handled by traditional banks. Cross border payments transcend beyond B2B payments and include peer-to-peer payments or business to consumer payments.

Remittances is a significant part of cross-border payments. Visa's data also shows new use cases for cross-border payments including payout to creators and digital wallet top-ups. As globalisation and global trade evolve, there is a huge demand for faster and more efficient cross border payment solutions to support the needs of consumers and businesses.

Visa Direct can power real-time and interoperable cross border transactions securely and efficiently, supporting more than 7 billion endpoints, including cards, accounts and digital wallets. Our key focus is building new partnerships and expanding our endpoints.

Trend 4: Real-time payments gain momentum

Real-time payments are growing rapidly across the world and are projected to reach $58 trillion by 2028 globally. The important task for regulators, policymakers and the broader payments ecosystem is to balance innovation with safeguards, protect against the risks associated with the instant and irreversible nature of RTP payments. Keeping consumers' interests at heart, Visa has rolled out solutions such as Visa Protect for A2A Payments to help mitigate fraud on RTP networks and identify potential instances of fraud.

Interoperability is also key to facilitating trade and global growth, and we see governments working closely with the private sector to address some of the key pain points and gaps.

As we look to the future, these new trends will no doubt impact the way consumers and businesses pay and be paid, making it more seamless and secure for everyone, everywhere.

SOURCE Visa Malaysia