For decades, the industry has defined innovation in payments by speed. Think: faster transactions, real-time settlements, one-click checkouts. But as 2025 draws to a close, a more profound revolution dedicated to the reengineering of trust at every layer of digital commerce is underway.
In conversations with PYMNTS for the “October Surprise” edition of the What’s Next in Payments series, a chorus of senior leaders shared why the future of payments belongs to those who can build resilience as fast as they build innovation.
Taken together, the executive discussions chart just exactly how, not just technology, but accountability, is reshaping the payments ecosystem. Four central themes emerged:
The payment industry’s next great disruption, it turns out, may not come from a breakthrough API or new token standard. It may come from a philosophical shift, that of moving from speed to steadiness, from convenience to credibility.
Resilience and Risk Management as the New Growth Strategy
In today’s uncertain and volatile operating landscape, resilience is no longer a defensive stance. It’s fast becoming an active growth enabler.
“Digitization is no longer optional for small or medium-sized businesses,” said Mark Barnett, global head of Small and Medium Enterprises at Mastercard, to PYMNTS. “But what that also means is you now have a digital footprint open to attack by bad actors.”
Barnett calls this “the tradeoff that comes with digital transformation.” For every advantage of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and mobile payments, there’s a widening attack surface that small businesses are ill-equipped to defend.
Mastercard’s answer is to make cyber resilience as accessible as digital payments themselves. “Resilience is about being able to withstand and recover from cyber incidents without losing focus on growth,” Barnett said. “It’s about creating a foundation for resilience. Every one of those millions of new digital businesses has vulnerability. Our goal is to make sure protection scales with opportunity.”
That same philosophy echoes in i2c’s approach to financial infrastructure. The global processor and payments technology provider treats agility and oversight not as internal controls but as instruments of innovation.
“Preparation really comes down to being able to be agile — having agility, scalability and being real-time; using real-time intelligence,” Matthew Pearce, vice president of Fraud Risk Management and Dispute Operations at i2c, said, noting that the company’s architecture, which is modular, adaptable and real-time, reflects an operating model designed for change.
Payments as a Strategic Lever, Not Just Infrastructure
At the heart of today’s ongoing business transformation lies a function that was long considered back-office plumbing: payments. Traditionally viewed as transactional infrastructure, payments are now being reimagined as strategic levers for growth, liquidity and differentiation.
Boost Payment Solutions exemplifies this shift. By optimizing B2B payment flows, the company helps corporations convert accounts payable into instruments of liquidity management. Payments become data-rich events — opportunities to refine working capital, strengthen supplier relationships and unlock new financing efficiencies. What was once a cost center becomes a generator of competitive advantage.
“Payments are no longer a commodity. They’re truly a strategic advantage when properly optimized,” Boost Payment Solutions Chief Revenue Officer Seth Goodman told PYMNTS.
“Working capital is still the top priority for CFOs and treasurers,” he added.
For Mastercard, the strategic value of payments lies in the link between trust and transaction. By ensuring that every exchange — digital or physical — is secure and auditable, the company transforms reliability into revenue. Each trusted transaction reinforces consumer confidence, which in turn fuels global commerce.
“It’s not just about one coffee shop or one online retailer. It’s about preserving the fabric of global commerce,” said Mastercard’s Barnett.
Trust, Transparency and Accountability in the Age of AI
Artificial intelligence runs through all the executive interviews, but not as the headline-grabbing disruptor it once was. Instead, AI is treated as a governance issue and a technology that demands structure, explainability and accountability.
“The biggest shift this year is the accelerated enforcement of AI-driven credit decisioning regulations,” said i2c’s Pearce. “Regulators around the world are really focusing on transparency and fairness and how AI is applied to credit scoring and fraud detection. … Institutions need to take a hard look at their AI governance, making sure that the models that they have are explainable, that they’re ethical, nondiscriminatory as well.”
For Trulioo Chief Product Officer Zac Cohen, the focus is on building a trust infrastructure ready for the next generation of digital transactions powered by AI.
“As this new mode of commerce and this new mode of digital interactions start to happen more frequently, and it’s catching fire very quickly, we believe that we have a fundamental place in that world to also bring trust to agentic verifications and agentic transactions,” Cohen told PYMNTS.
Taken together, these moves represent a broader economic truth: Trust is the new infrastructure. The success of every digital interaction — human or machine — now depends on systems that are both powerful and intelligible. The companies leading this shift are not those with the most advanced AI, but those with the most accountable AI.
The Democratization and Humanization of Technology
For all their sophistication, these strategies share a surprisingly human core. Each company is working to make technology not only more powerful but also more accessible, usable and inclusive.
Mastercard’s cybersecurity platform for SMEs distills complex digital protection into simple, plug-and-play tools. In doing so, it transforms resilience from an elite capability into a universal right. By making cyber hygiene as routine as accepting a credit card, Mastercard helps small businesses focus on growth instead of fear.
i2c’s modular infrastructure performs a similar function for financial institutions. Its technology enables issuers — from global banks to FinTech startups — to configure products in real time, without massive upfront investment or technical overhaul. That flexibility effectively democratizes innovation: A small issuer can now experiment with real-time payments or digital wallets at a scale once exclusive to giants.
Trulioo also roots its mission in accessibility. Its identity verification network connects databases across more than 100 countries, turning what was once a fragmented, high-cost compliance task into a seamless, interoperable process. The result: Startups and enterprises alike can onboard users globally with the same level of confidence.
This convergence — where technology once reserved for specialists becomes usable by everyone — signals a quiet revolution in digital design. Businesses hide complexity instead of celebrating it. Sophistication is being translated into simplicity. The humanization of technology has become both a moral and a market imperative.
This approach challenges traditional business orthodoxy. For decades, corporate strategy prioritized optimization: reducing costs, tightening controls, streamlining processes. The new paradigm prioritizes adaptability: building systems that can flex, learn and self-correct. In this world, efficiency without resilience is fragility disguised as strength.
