News

Loyalty & Rewards
Credit Union Members Want Rewards on the Tech Agenda
October 06, 2026

Credit unions deciding where to put their next technology dollar are getting a different answer from consumers than they might expect. The PYMNTS Intelligence playbook “Credit Union Innovation Readiness: The Rewards Opportunity Credit Unions Can No Longer Ignore,” produced in collaboration with Velera, found in...

Retail
Amazon’s Retail Lead Goes Beyond Electronics
October 06, 2026

Amazon now captures more spending than Walmart in five of seven retail categories, extending its reach from electronics and apparel into health and personal care. That breadth gives Amazon several ways to grow as consumers shift more purchases toward goods they can research, order and...

Artificial Intelligence
NYC Lawmakers Aim to Lead Nation in Establishing AI Safety Rules
October 05, 2026

New York City is positioning itself as a leader in an effort to slow down the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the Wall Street Journal reported Monday (Oct. 5). The New York City Council held a hearing Monday in which lawmakers heard from, and in some cases...

Retail
AI Agents Knock. Retailers Decide How Wide to Open the Door.
October 05, 2026

Retailers are drawing different lines on how far artificial intelligence (AI) shopping agents can go on their sites. Amazon blocks outside agents while it builds its own. QVC lets agents complete purchases. Walmart lets Google’s Gemini surface its products, then hands the basket to its...

Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft and Meta Steer Staff From Anthropic Claude to In-House AI
October 05, 2026

Microsoft and Meta each reduced their internal use of Anthropic’s Claude by encouraging employees to use their company’s own, in-house artificial intelligence tools, The Information reported Monday (Oct. 5), citing unnamed sources. Microsoft was on track to spend $1 billion this year on internal use...

Artificial Intelligence
Bank of America Says Investors Are Overplaying AI and Underestimating Consumers
October 05, 2026

It may be time for investors to pivot from artificial intelligence-linked capital expenditures to consumer-driven spending, Bank of America strategists wrote in a Monday (Oct. 5) note, according to a Bloomberg report. The abundance of AI spending and the shrinking of discretionary spending are already...

Loyalty & Rewards
Loyalty Programs Make Smaller Rewards Balances Spendable
October 05, 2026

Loyalty points are becoming more liquid as airlines give customers more choices over when and how much of their accumulated rewards to spend. American Airlines said in a Friday (Oct. 2) press release that AAdvantage members will soon be able to combine miles with cash...

Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI Linking Visual Ads With ChatGPT Images
October 05, 2026

OpenAI says it is making advertisements within ChatGPT more visual and measurable. The company’s new visual ad format is designed to help users “imagine how products and services could fit into their lives,” as the artificial intelligence (AI) company said in a Monday (Oct. 5) news release....

Artificial Intelligence
L’Oréal Cuts Customer Service Time 64% With AI
October 05, 2026

A L’Oréal adviser who needed to issue a customer a discount code once clicked through about 15 screens over 10 minutes. Now the adviser types a prompt, and artificial intelligence generates the code in about 1 minute, Salesforce reported. Across 25 North American brands, that...