Walking in a Payments Wonderland

(2025)

Snow falls soft on legacy rails,
Paper checks stuck in the mail.
We gather ‘round the dashboard glow,
Watching how payments flow.
AI agents take the stand,
Walking in a payments wonderland.

Gone are bots that only chat,
These ones do—imagine that.
They book, they bill, negotiate,
While we sleep, they automate.
Work gets done just as planned,
Walking in an agentic wonderland.

At checkout, friction fades away,
No more passwords left to play.
Face or palm, a blink, a scan,
Trusted ID leads the brand.
Verify and buy on demand,
Walking in a biometric wonderland.

Real-time rails are in command,
FedNow live across the land.
No more waiting, understand—
Cash arrives in an instant, not “planned.”
Payouts move just when they can,
Walking in an instant payments wonderland.

But fraudsters prowl the digital night,
Social engineering feels polite.
Scams move fast, but signals too,
AI defends in real-time view.
Trust is built, not just assumed,
Walking in a safer payments wonderland.

Across the globe, the markets sway,
Liquidity matters day to day.
Tokenized assets on the sheet,
Balance lines turn fast and neat.
Stablecoins steady every plan,
Walking in a crypto wonderland.

B2B drops the paper chase,
Virtual cards take checks’ place.
AP, AR in perfect sync,
Every payment faster than we think.
Control and clarity go hand in hand,
Walking in a modern commerce wonderland.

One API pulls threads as one,
Orchestration gets it done.
Banks and rails just plug and play,
Embedded finance leads the way.
Platforms scale just as they planned,
Walking in a streamlined payments wonderland.

So as the year draws to a close,
And Time to Cash hits zero slow,
AI is agentic, value expands—
On-chain, real-time, fully planned.
Happy holidays, hand in hand,
Walking in a payments wonderland.

Happy Holidays from PYMNTS

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