AI Makes Strong Payments Enterprises Stronger

AI will not replace the foundation of a strong enterprise; it will amplify it, Boost Payment Solutions Chief Operating Officer Illya Shell writes in a new PYMNTS eBook, “Building the Agent-Ready Payments Enterprise.”

As artificial intelligence moves from copilots to agents, the opportunity to evolve how businesses function is becoming more practical and immediate. Enterprises are starting to apply AI to real workflows where speed, accuracy and consistency matter. The bigger question is not simply what AI can do, it is what business foundation AI is being built upon.

AI agents have begun to autonomously execute defined work across systems and decision points. But in enterprises, agents do not become valuable in isolation. They become valuable when connected to trusted data, strong technology, established workflows and clear governance.

At Boost, we do not view AI as something being applied to a blank slate. We view it as an accelerator of foundational capabilities that already exist: years of proprietary payments data, deep B2B payments expertise, established customer and partner relationships and a best-in-class technology platform built around complex enterprise payment workflows.

That foundation is what makes AI more powerful. Agentic AI grounded in proprietary data and domain knowledge can help validate information, flag exceptions and support better decisions. In the payments industry, that context is critical. Understanding how enterprise buyers, suppliers, issuers and processors interact is not something that can be recreated through generic automation alone.

Our business is already seeing this transition take shape. AI is being applied in areas such as payments processing, quality control, product design and development, client onboarding and customer service, where agents can help reduce manual effort and improve operational consistency. More importantly, agents will help us build more intelligent customer-facing solutions and experiences over time.

But agentic AI also requires discipline. Thoughtful design and planning are necessary ingredients to properly build an agentic enterprise. In payments, speed only matters if accuracy, control and trust are preserved. There is very little room for ambiguity and no room for error. That is why the future of enterprise AI cannot be unrestricted autonomy. It has to include intelligent orchestration.

In practice, AI can automate frontline processing, with another AI-enabled layer established to validate the output. Human quality control can remain in place to address issues that require judgment. The goal is not to remove people from the process, but to give them better systems, deeper insight and more technical leverage.

This is where many companies will find that autonomy is harder to scale than expected. The challenge is not always the model itself, but instead the enterprise context around the model. AI needs reliable data, mature workflows and business rules that reflect how the company operates. The agentic enterprise will be defined by companies that combine AI with proprietary assets, operational expertise and disciplined governance to generate business outcomes that could not be achieved by humans alone.

For customers, the impact should be tangible: faster support, smoother onboarding, stronger knowledge access, more engaging solutions and payment experiences that feel less fragmented.

AI will not replace the foundation of a strong enterprise; it will amplify it. The companies best positioned for the agentic future are the ones starting with something unique to build upon.