How to Make the Payments Experience Disappear

Money rarely sits still, and in the world of payments technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a driver of innovation.

“My vision for the future is to make payments disappear into the background,” Gaurav Singal, CTO at Cantaloupe, told PYMNTS for the series “What’s Next in Payments: Memo To The GenAI Companies.”

This vision extends beyond consumer convenience. Singal emphasized the potential for a frictionless, secure payment experience where customers don’t even have to think about the payment process. “Imagine a world where payments are invisible but incredibly secure,” he said. “That would be a game-changer for the payments industry.

“I would like to see biometric solutions, like voice activation or facial recognition, replace the need for physical cards or wallets,” Singal added.

But he stressed that AI systems are not quite there yet. While GenAI has proven useful in various aspects of Cantaloupe’s own operations, Singal noted that accuracy is paramount in the payments industry.

“In payments, we need one hundred percent accuracy,” he said. “GenAI suffers from hallucinations, and we cannot afford to have errors in critical transactions.” This is why Cantaloupe’s approach to AI deployment involves a careful balance between GenAI and statistical models to ensure reliability.

GenAI Addresses Payments Pain Points

Looking ahead, Singal shared his excitement about the potential for GenAI to further enhance the payments experience.

One of the more innovative projects in the pipeline for Cantaloupe is the company’s social gifting platform, which allows fans at sports events to send drinks, food or merchandise to friends and family through the company’s Cheq mobile app.

“What we’ve enabled is personalized messaging,” Singal said. “With GenAI, customers can send a personalized crafted message along with their social gift, making the experience more meaningful and personal.”

Singal also discussed the challenges that the payments industry faces and how GenAI could address these pain points. One of the major hurdles is the time and complexity involved in detecting fraud. Traditional fraud detection systems can take a long time to develop and often miss subtle anomalies. Singal believes that GenAI can provide a more immediate solution.

“GenAI systems can detect small anomalies that traditional systems might miss,” he said. “They can automatically flag suspicious activity and even provide real-time alerts for compliance teams.”

Moreover, he stressed the need for development in AI’s ability to work with time-series data, particularly in the context of fraud detection. “If GenAI can predict the next data points based on historical patterns, it will significantly improve fraud prevention,” Singal said.

“We’re using both structured and unstructured data to generate high-velocity payment alerts,” he added. “If we see suspicious activity, we flag it for review, and in cases of high-risk transactions, the system can neutralize them automatically before human intervention is required.”

Aligning GenAI Development

As AI companies rapidly innovate, the pace of development may not always align with the stability required by the payments industry. Singal believes there’s an opportunity for AI to better integrate into the development cycles of payments platforms.

“In payments, stability and accuracy are key,” he said. “GenAI can help improve application reliability by automatically detecting issues in real time and applying fixes, reducing downtime and accelerating the development cycle.”

When asked how GenAI has impacted Cantaloupe’s operations, Singal said the company has strategically implemented AI across various functions, starting with low-risk, high-reward areas before expanding into more complex applications. “We started with low-risk, low-value tasks, and we are now moving toward high-risk, high-value items.”

One notable implementation has been in the sales and marketing department, where GenAI is deployed to analyze unstructured data from meetings, calls and emails. This AI-driven process helps the team identify potential opportunities and evaluate the quality of leads, driving revenue growth.

“GenAI is actually summarizing the calls and generating a quality score of this potential customer,” Singal shared. “It helps us identify the next big opportunity and also guides our sales team on how to approach the customer.”

The possibilities are vast, and as the industry continues to evolve, the role of GenAI will only become more significant. As Singal put it, “The potential for GenAI to transform payments is immense. We’re just scratching the surface.”