Author: Art Ryan

Payment technology provider Worldpay is now supporting OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP). As the company noted in a news release Wednesday (Oct. 29), this is an open standard for artificial intelligence (AI) commerce allowing AI agents, people and businesses to work together on purchases. With ACP, the release added, U.S. users of OpenAI’s ChatGPT will be able to shop directly from participating Worldpay merchants using Instant Checkout. “For agentic commerce to truly scale, it must deliver seamless, secure payments that both consumers and merchants can trust,” said Cindy Turner, chief product officer at Worldpay. “Our credential management doesn’t just keep payment data safe – it keeps it up to…

Chipmaker Nvidia is now the world’s first $5 trillion company. The tech giant had been on pace to reach that milestone before the markets opened Wednesday (Oct. 29), with its valuation hitting $5.1 trillion as of mid-morning. Nvidia is already the largest company in the world, passing the $4 trillion mark in July. Two other companies, Microsoft and Apple, have valuations in the $4 trillion range. “A $5 trillion market cap would’ve been unimaginable a few years ago, especially getting here this quickly,” Keith Lerner, chief investment officer and chief market strategist at Truist Advisory Services, told Bloomberg News. “The market is certainly putting a lot…

Booking Holdings is seeing early results from the generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) solutions it offers across its travel and related platforms. The company, which owns the Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable brands, offers several gen AI tools and added more during the third quarter, executives said Tuesday (Oct. 28) during an earnings call. “What are we measuring in terms of impact? Ultimately, faster search, better conversion, lower cancellation rates, and higher customer satisfaction,” Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen said during the call. “Very early signals we’re having around it, but overall very encouraged we are with what we are seeing at this moment.” Later during the…

Moves from Adobe, Oracle, OpenAI and Google highlight how enterprise tech is doubling down on artificial intelligence (AI) in workflows, infrastructure expansion, and developer enablement across creative, business and cloud ecosystems. Creative Professionals Get Agentic AI Adobe announced Tuesday (Oct. 28) at its MAX 2025 event that Creative Cloud apps such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere and Illustrator will now include an AI Assistant powered by agentic AI to handle repeatable tasks and surface personalized recommendations. Adobe’s announcement also noted more than 100 new features, including image upscaling, generative editing and batch-image processing via its Firefly suite. The updates are part of what Adobe calls “collaborative intelligence,” where human input and…

Nvidia is investing $1 billion in Nokia through a partnership with the Finnish tech company. The partnership, announced Tuesday (Oct. 28), involves the addition of Nvidia-powered, commercial grade artificial intelligence radio access network (AI-RAN) products into Nokia’s RAN portfolio. This will allow communication service providers to launch AI-native 5G-Advanced and 6G networks on Nvidia platforms, the world’s most valuable company said in a news release, calling the collaboration “the beginning of the AI-native wireless era.” The partnership also addresses the fast-growing AI-RAN market, with the larger RAN market expected to exceed $200 billion by 2030, Nvidia said, citing data from analyst firm Omdia. Together, Nvidia and Nokia are also laying the infrastructure for telecom providers by delivering distributed…

UnitedHealth Group says tech investments are key to its ongoing turnaround strategy. The insurer announced quarterly earnings Tuesday (Oct. 28) showing consolidated revenues of $113.2 billion, a 12% increase year over year. Speaking during an earnings call, the company’s management team noted the different ways UnitedHealth and its various arms were using technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to boost performance. For example, Tim Noel, CEO of UnitedHealthcare, said that almost 85% of member inquiries are served digitally, with 90% of calls answered within thirty seconds, and 95% of members’ questions resolved in the first interaction. “We’re also aggressively scaling AI and machine learning capabilities to enhance these experiences and optimized core performance,” he said. “While 2025 remains a transition year, the pressure…

OpenAI has completed its restructuring, pushing longtime benefactor Microsoft’s valuation north of $4 trillion. The artificial intelligence (AI) startup announced Tuesday (Oct. 28) that it had transformed its for-profit arm into a public benefit corporation. The new arrangement gives Microsoft a 27% stake — worth roughly $135 billion — in that unit. “What began as an investment in a research organization has grown into one of the most successful partnerships in our industry,” OpenAI wrote on its blog. “As we enter the next phase of this partnership, we’ve signed a new definitive agreement that builds on our foundation, strengthens our partnership, and sets the stage…

Vanguard Group has turned artificial intelligence from a pilot program into a profit engine, generating more than $500 million in measurable business value across customer service, analytics and software development, according to MIT Sloan Management Review. The $11 trillion asset manager’s methodical rollout shows how large financial institutions can use AI to boost productivity while maintaining trust, governance and employee engagement. From Call Centers to Investment Analytics As mentioned in MIT Sloan analysis on Monday (Oct. 27), Vanguard’s first wave of AI deployments focused on service and productivity. Its “Crew Assist” tool, powered by Azure OpenAI, helps call-center representatives handle investor inquiries more efficiently,…

Finance platform BILL has launched a suite of AI agents for small businesses. The new offering, announced Tuesday (Oct. 28) includes features that autonomously collect and validate W-9s, reconcile receipts, accelerate user onboarding, and carry out routine tasks for what BILL calls “Fortune 5 Million” companies saddled with manual workflows. “For example, more than 90% of businesses say collecting W-9s is the most painful part of doing taxes, and many spend too much time on expense management,” BILL said in a news release. “These inefficiencies force leaders into trade-offs between running the back office and growing their business. BILL AI agents eliminate these workflows, freeing…

Elon Musk has launched Grokipedia, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered version of Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia, which launched Monday (Oct. 27), is designed to “purge out” what Musk called “the propaganda” on Wikipedia, according to a post on his X social media site. It takes its name from Grok, the AI chatbot behind Musk’s xAI startup. The tech tycoon had previously attacked Wikipedia as “woke” and criticized it for citing media outlets like The New York Times and NPR as sources in many of its articles. Grokipedia had 885,279 AI-written entries as of early Tuesday (Oct. 28) morning, compared to the more than 7 million English language human-created entries on…

The question confronting global enterprises today is no longer whether AI can make transactions faster or smarter, but whether it can make them trustworthy. “AI is starting to redefine the speed, scale and intelligence of how businesses interact and transact,” Vijay Mehta, EVP/GM of Global Solutions and Analytics at Experian, told PYMNTS during a discussion for the B2B Payments 2025 event hosted by PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster. “In the payment space, we’re seeing AI move from back-office automation to frontline decisioning where agents can negotiate, validate and execute,” Mehta added. As Webster framed it, “AI plays on both sides of creating trust and destroying trust.”…

The fraud landscape in payments is evolving faster than many financial institutions can adapt. For Matthew Pearce, vice president of Fraud Risk Management and Dispute Operations at i2c, artificial intelligence is the most valuable — and volatile — tool in that fight. As AI reshapes decisioning, regulators are scrutinizing how it’s used, and the pace of change could deliver an “October surprise” few banks see coming. “One of the biggest shifts this year is the accelerated enforcement of AI-driven credit decisioning regulations,” Pearce said, as part of the “What’s Next in Payments” series examining the surprises that may lurk in the final…

PayPal has struck a partnership with OpenAI to embed its digital wallet into ChatGPT. The arrangement will see PayPal adopt the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) to let users pay for items they find using the artificial intelligence (AI) startup’s flagship product, according to a Tuesday (Oct. 28) news release. In addition, PayPal says it will support payments processing for merchants leveraging OpenAI Instant Checkout. “Hundreds of millions of people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks, including finding products they love, and over 400 million use PayPal to shop,” PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in the news release. “By partnering with OpenAI and adopting…

Kuala Lumpur Positions Itself as Southeast Asia’s Next AI Powerhouse Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — October 2025 — The World AI Show Malaysia 2025, the nation’s premier gathering of artificial intelligence leaders and innovators, is set to take place on October 28–29, 2025, uniting the region’s most influential minds in government, enterprise, and technology. Hosted by Trescon Global, the summit marks the Malaysian debut of the world-renowned World AI Show series, spotlighting the country’s emergence as a regional epicenter for AI adoption, investment, and policy innovation. With the theme “AI in Action: Powering Malaysia’s Cloud-First & Sustainable Digital Economy,” this year’s…

AI startup Anthropic has introduced an expansion of its Claude for Financial Services platform. This update includes an Excel add-in and new connectors to real-time market data and portfolio analytics, as well as new “pre-built Agent Skills” such as building discounted cash flow models and initiating coverage reports, the company wrote in a Monday (Oct. 27) blog post. “Claude is already widely used by leading banking, asset management, insurance and financial technology companies,” the post read. “It supports front-office tasks like client experience, middle-office tasks in underwriting, risk and compliance and back-office tasks like code modernization and legacy processes. With ongoing updates to our models…

Business payments/cash management company Bottomline is rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI) agent. The agent, set to roll out early next year, will be integrated into Bottomline’s Global Cash Management and Payments Hub, the company announced Monday (Oct. 27). The new offering is designed to provide finance leaders with conversational AI and predictive insights, transforming treasury workflows, enhancing cash visibility, and driving faster, smarter decision-making. “Bottomline’s AI agent, named Bea, is being designed to act as a digital team member in the office of the CFO, enabling treasurers, cash managers, and compliance professionals to interact daily with financial data using natural language,” the company said…

Pinterest announced on Monday new AI-powered upgrades to its boards to make them more personalized for users. These features include an AI-driven collage, “Styled for you,” that helps users create outfits from saved fashion Pins, and “Boards made for you,” which are personalized boards curated with AI. “Styled for you” collages allow users to combine different clothing and accessories to create new outfits tailored to their individual style preferences. By tapping an item in the collage, users can swipe through AI-recommended saved pins for mixing and matching. Pinterest is also testing “Boards made for you,” personalized boards curated from a blend of…

Qualcomm announced Monday (Oct. 27) a new line of processors designed to power artificial intelligence inside data centers, signaling a major expansion beyond its traditional mobile-chip business. The company said its AI200 and AI250 chips will help enterprises run large-scale AI applications such as chatbots, analytics engines and digital assistants more efficiently while reducing energy use. Qualcomm Introduces AI200 and AI250 The San Diego-based company said the AI200 will be available in 2026 and the AI250 in early 2027. The processors are built for the “inference” phase of AI, where trained models are put to work on real-world tasks rather than being…

Mastercard and PayPal are deepening their partnership to bring agentic AI transactions into the mainstream. Under the agreement, Mastercard’s Agent Pay platform will be integrated into PayPal’s branded checkout wallet. The move allows consumers using PayPal to make purchases guided by artificial intelligence assistants, with Mastercard providing the secure payment rails behind the scenes. The collaboration extends to PayPal’s millions of merchants and Mastercard’s co-branded credit and debit cards, creating a shared infrastructure for agent-driven commerce at global scale. PayPal will pilot Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework to ensure that AI-initiated payments meet common security and verification standards. The integration uses Mastercard’s tokenization…

Investors continued to pour capital into artificial intelligence startups this week, funding companies that build the infrastructure supporting the creation and deployment of advanced models and the applications those models power. Crusoe Energy Systems Powers AI Sustainably Crusoe Energy Systems led the month’s fundraising with a $1.38 billion round that pushed its valuation above $10 billion, according to Reuters. The Denver-based company operates large data centers designed specifically for AI workloads and powered in part by natural gas that would otherwise be burned off at oil sites. By converting this wasted energy into electricity for computing, Crusoe reduces emissions while cutting…