Payments industry leaders look back on changes in insights and decision-making in 2026
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On October 28, 2026, PYMNTS invited executives from companies including PayPal, Synchrony, and Paysafe to look back on which evidence changed their views in 2026 and discuss adjustments to their decision-making as they entered the fourth quarter. Several executives said that AI’s effectiveness is not determined solely by the strongest model; specialized use cases, testing, controls, and internal knowledge are equally important. Human judgment still needs to be retained when deploying AI. In digital payments, physical stores have adopted account-based wallets faster than expected. The executives’ focus also expanded from stablecoins to their commercial applications and tokenized deposits.
AI-written from reports · updated 2 hours ago
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- PYMNTSPayment industry leaders discuss which changes in 2026 changed their views
PYMNTS invited executives from companies including PayPal, Synchrony, and Paysafe to look back on the evidence that changed their views in 2026 and explain how they adjusted their decisions as Q4 approached. Several executives noted that AI’s effectiveness depends not only on the most powerful models, but also on specialized use cases, testing, controls, and internal knowledge, and that human judgment still needs to be retained during deployment. In digital payments, brick-and-mortar stores adopted account-based wallets faster than expected, while the discussion expanded from stablecoins to commercial use cases and tokenized deposits.
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