PayPal announced on Jan. 25 that it will launch a variety of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered products aimed at end users and merchants.
In an interview with Reuters, PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss said:
“The data that we have and our ability to actually see what people have bought and know what merchants are trying to target, that’s where I think AI is the huge opportunity for us.”
PayPal announced a feature called CashPass, which will use give users personalized cashback offers based on an AI analysis of their spending activity.
CashPass will be available starting in March. It will initially launch with participation from major companies including Best Buy, eBay, McDonald’s, Priceline, Ticketmaster, Uber, and Walmart. Users can earn greater rewards by combining the feature with PayPal’s Cashback Mastercard and savings accounts.
Other AI features target merchants
Additionally, PayPal is introducing a feature called Smart Receipts. This will use AI to suggest purchases to users, thereby encouraging users to return to merchants that they have already made purchases from. Merchants will be able to make a personalized suggestion and provide cashback rewards, PayPal said.
PayPal also announced its advanced offers platform, an AI-powered promotional tool that will take into account approximately $500 billion of merchant transactions globally. This will allow merchants to pay only for performance rather than impressions or clicks, PayPal said, while also providing end users with “more relevant offers, and more opportunities to earn rewards.”
The payments company also announced a new one-click checkout called Fastlane, updates to Venmo Business Profiles, and passkey-based (ie. face or fingerprint) logins. It did not state whether AI will be used in these three features.
PayPal stock up less than 2%
Reaction to the news has been underwhelming. Though the price of PayPal stock (PYPL) is up 1.76% over 24 hours, news outlets including CNBC and Barron’s noted declining share prices closer to the announcement.
PayPal has previously embraced other tech trends, most notably cryptocurrency and blockchain. The company introduced its own stablecoin in August 2023. PayPal also introduced crypto features in the U.S. starting in 2021 and is expected to reintroduce those services in the U.K. this year.
