Firms in the United States and Canada depend on third-party providers to deliver several of the crucial digital technologies necessary to optimize their companies’ payment operations.
Among these technologies, the most common is the supplier portal, something that 92% of the firms in our study reported using, with 35% of them sourcing these portals from third-party providers.
And then there are dynamic terms and AI systems. Among the 78% of U.S. and Canadian firms that report using dynamic terms, 56% say they source those systems through third party providers. AI systems are slightly rarer, with 44% of U.S. and Canadian firms using at least one AI technology. Again, among those firms, 56% said they use AI systems sourced from third-party providers.
But this picture could look very different in the next few years, as third-party provider use is likely to play a more central role in expanding businesses’ AI and blockchain capabilities in the future: 60% of U.S. and Canadian firms plan to adopt blockchain technology over the next five years, but 80% of these firms say they’ll use technologies from third-party providers.
Among the 51% of firms report plans to implement AI technology in the next five years, 70% say they’ll turn to third-party providers to make that happen.
Mid-market companies are more likely to use third-party providers to help them carry out their five-year innovation plans.
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Third party providers can help mid-market firms avoid the steep costs and lengthy schedules they’d typically face if they decided to create their own technologies from scratch, often giving these companies access to technologies and expertise that might otherwise be out of reach.
PYMNTS research found that 51% of mid-market firms plan to turn to third-party providers to deliver blockchain and smart contract technologies over the next five years, while 41% of these companies plan to source AI systems from third-party providers in that same time period.
Do you want to know more about how third party-platforms are helping businesses innovate and drive sales? Download Accelerating The Time To Realized Revenue: Tapping Third-Party Platforms, a PYMNTS and Mastercard collaboration.
