News

Artificial Intelligence
Stripe and Ramp Are Betting on AI Traffic Controllers
August 20, 2026

Stripe is known for processing payments. Ramp is known for managing corporate expenses. But this week, the two companies made almost identical moves: building the layer that decides which artificial intelligence (AI) model gets used. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this...

Artificial Intelligence
AT&T Slashes AI Costs by Adopting Model Routers and Open Source
August 20, 2026

AT&T cut the costs of coding and some other advanced artificial intelligence tasks by as much as 56% by using tools that route employees’ queries to cheaper models when appropriate, The Information reported Thursday (Aug. 20). Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock...

Artificial Intelligence
Airbnb Tests AI Search After Automating 45% of Support
August 20, 2026

Airbnb is building artificial intelligence into nearly every step of a trip, not just the chatbot. The company’s AI customer-service assistant now resolves nearly 45% of user inquiries without a human agent, up from about a third at the end of last year, operating in...

Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic Plans to Tweak Data Retention Rules After Enterprise Concerns
August 20, 2026

Anthropic plans to modify the data retention policy it announced in June, Bloomberg reported Thursday (Aug. 20), citing an unnamed source. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins...

Retail
Walmart and Amazon Rewrite the Price War
August 20, 2026

Years of inflation, promotions, personalized discounts and constantly shifting online prices have made shoppers better at finding deals. They have also made it harder for shoppers to know what anything is supposed to truly cost, a fact that is being sharpened against a backdrop of...

Artificial Intelligence
Retailers Report AI-Driven Sales and Bigger Baskets in Q2 Earnings
August 20, 2026

It’s early for artificial intelligence shopping tools, but the results are already showing up in bigger orders and more spending, and major retailers said so this earnings season. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to...

Acquiring
Anthropic-Backed Ode Acquires Casper Studios to Expand Corporate AI Deployments
August 20, 2026

Ode with Anthropic, an enterprise artificial intelligence transformation company launched by a partnership that includes Anthropic, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman and a consortium of global investors, has acquired AI services firm Casper Studios, Ode said in a Thursday (Aug. 20) press release. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock...

Investments
OpenAI and Anthropic Fuel California’s Record-Setting Investment Surge 
August 20, 2026

California is reportedly seeing an historic wave of investment due to Silicon Valley’s artificial intelligence (AI) boom. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required. yesSubscribe to our...

B2B Payments
Tariff Refunds Turn Old B2B Invoices Into Claims on Cash
August 20, 2026

The $100 billion U.S. tariff unwind isn’t just a legal exercise for enterprise firms; it’s exposing a crucial piece of B2B infrastructure. Get the Full Story Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional...