Uber’s AI Knows the City Before Your Driver Does
Uber has launched a driver‑facing AI assistant and a voice‑enabled rider booking feature powered by OpenAI. The assistant pulls live marketplace data to give city‑specific routing and earnings advice, cutting new‑driver ramp‑up from hundreds of trips to just dozens. A safety layer called AI Guard vets prompts for privacy and factual accuracy, while a multi‑agent routing model balances cost by routing simple queries to cheaper models. The tools are in beta for U.S. users, with a broader rollout planned in the coming weeks.
Hourly Workers Are Drowning in Liquidity Gaps, and FinTech Has a Lifeline
PYMNTS Intelligence’s Wage to Wallet Index reveals that hourly, Labor‑Economy workers face severe liquidity gaps, with nearly half missing or delaying bills as paychecks lag. The “liquidity tax” – overdraft and late‑fee costs – eats about 3.4% of their monthly...
OpenAI Launches $4 Billion Company to Accelerate Enterprise AI Adoption
OpenAI announced the formation of the OpenAI Deployment Company, a $4 billion venture backed by 19 global investors, to help enterprises adopt AI. The joint venture will offer consulting, workflow redesign, and integration services, and will acquire applied‑AI firm Tomoro, adding...
Google Finance Continues AI-Focused Expansion With EU Launch
Google is rolling out its AI‑enhanced Google Finance platform across Europe this week, extending the service that debuted in the U.S. last August and India in November. The new experience bundles AI‑driven research, interactive charting, real‑time market intelligence, and live...
Americans Make New Technology a Daily Habit at Record Speed
Artificial intelligence has crossed a critical adoption threshold, with 54% of U.S. adults reporting personal use between December and January—a five‑point jump in just one month. Most of these users are frequent adopters, performing eight or more AI‑driven tasks each...
Chess Learns to Live With Its Robot Overlords
At FIDE’s Chess & AI in Education Congress in Menorca, officials highlighted how artificial intelligence is reshaping chess from a competitive sport into a classroom laboratory. Modern engines such as Stockfish deliver instant, grandmaster‑level analysis, while projects like Maia simulate...
SEC Chairman Urges Clear Rules for On-Chain Trading
SEC Chairman Paul S. Atkins urged the agency to issue clearer rules for on‑chain trading, emphasizing the need to define how broker‑dealer, clearing agency and crypto‑vault activities fit within existing regulations. He reiterated his call for Congress to pass the...
AI Finally Solves the Food Tracking Problem Wearables Ignored
Polyverse’s CalCam app leverages Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash model to turn a single meal photo into a detailed calorie and nutrient breakdown. By automating food identification, portion estimation, and macronutrient calculation, the app eliminates the manual data entry that drives...
Seventh Circuit Resets Illinois Swipe-Fee Fight as July 1 Deadline Looms
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit vacated a February district‑court ruling upholding Illinois’ Interchange Fee Prohibition Act and remanded the case to the Northern District of Illinois. The decision cancels scheduled oral arguments and returns the dispute...
OCC Recommends Banks Sharpen AI Defense Tactics
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released its Spring 2026 Semiannual Risk Perspective, flagging artificial intelligence as both a cyber‑risk and an innovation driver for banks. It urges institutions to tighten AI‑related defenses with multifactor authentication, rapid...
Labor Economy Workers Keep the Jobs Market Moving
The U.S. labor market added 115,000 jobs in April, keeping the unemployment rate steady at 4.3%. Hiring was concentrated in front‑line sectors—healthcare, transportation and warehousing, and retail—showing continued demand for in‑person workers. Average hourly earnings rose 3.6% year‑over‑year, staying slightly...
Airbnb CEO Predicts AI Will Rewrite Job Descriptions
Airbnb’s latest shareholder letter reveals that its engineers now co‑author 60% of their code with artificial intelligence, accelerating product cycles. In the customer‑support arena, the AI Assistant resolves more than 40% of guest inquiries without human intervention, contributing to a...
Anthropic Found AI Makes Impractical Work Worth Doing
Anthropic’s internal study shows that AI‑driven Claude Code is now used in 60% of employee work, delivering roughly a 50% productivity uplift. The research revealed that 27% of AI‑assisted output consisted of tasks employees would not have attempted without the...
Mastercard Rallies Partners to Support MENA Small Businesses
Mastercard has launched the "Built Small. Moving Strong." program to help small‑ and medium‑size businesses in the Middle East and North Africa navigate war‑driven trade disruptions and rising costs. The initiative brings together banks, governments and ecosystem partners to provide...
BILL Plans 30% Workforce Cut as AI Becomes Top Priority
Bill.com announced it will slash its workforce by up to 30% by the end of the fourth quarter, shifting resources toward artificial‑intelligence initiatives. The company highlighted rapid AI adoption, with more than 100,000 customers using its agents and the invoice‑coding...
Mercado Libre Sacrifices Short-Term Profits to Fuel Growth
Mercado Libre reported a 49% year‑over‑year jump in net revenue to $8.8 billion in Q1 2026, fueled by aggressive investments in free‑shipping, a new credit card, first‑party inventory and cross‑border trade. Despite the revenue surge, net income fell 16% to $417 million...
Affirm Earnings Put Consumer Credit, Private Credit in Focus
Affirm reported a strong quarter, with gross merchandise volume climbing 35% year‑over‑year to $11.6 billion and revenue rising 33% to $1.04 billion. Delinquency rates remained flat, with 30‑plus‑day loans at 2.8% and 90‑plus‑day at 0.7%, indicating stable borrower performance. The company highlighted...
Half of Luxury Shoppers Prefer Resale, and The RealReal Saw It Coming
Luxury resale is moving from niche to mainstream, with nearly half of luxury shoppers now weighing resale value and almost 60% preferring the secondary market. The RealReal leveraged its AI‑driven Athena intake system to process 35% of items in Q1,...
The Connected Economy Is Making Companies Worth a Trillion Dollars
Samsung’s entry into the trillion‑dollar club underscores a broader shift: the world’s most valuable firms now earn their size by controlling essential bottlenecks in the Connected Economy. Companies such as Nvidia, Walmart, Eli Lilly and Berkshire Hathaway dominate critical layers of...
Relaunched Dick’s Sporting Goods Credit Card Offers 10% Back
Dick’s Sporting Goods has relaunched its private‑label credit card program with longtime partner Synchrony, rebranding it as the Dick’s Credit Card and adding a co‑branded Mastercard. Cardholders earn 10% back in ScoreCard Rewards on qualifying purchases at any Dick’s brand...
Visa Canada and RemitBee Team to Simplify Cross-Border Payments
Visa Canada has partnered with Canadian fintech RemitBee to embed Visa Direct into the remittance platform, enabling real‑time payouts to bank accounts, digital wallets and Visa cards in more than 190 countries and 150 currencies. The integration gives credit unions...
Anthropic CEO Predicts SaaS Pivot as AI Coding Surges
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI‑driven coding agents are slashing software development costs, forcing SaaS providers to develop new moats beyond code complexity. He cautioned that incumbents without differentiated assets could see market value evaporate or even go bankrupt....
Banks Are Building the Trust Layer AI Can’t Break
Banks, payment firms and digital platforms are moving from siloed KYC/KYB checkpoints to an “ID supply chain” model that spreads identity verification, risk signals and data across multiple participants. The shift is driven by AI agents, automated bots and embedded...
PhonePe AI Agent Cuts Payment Gateway Integration to Minutes
PhonePe unveiled an AI‑powered integration agent that lets merchants connect its payment gateway through a conversational interface, cutting setup time from weeks to minutes. The tool is aimed at small‑ and medium‑sized businesses that lack in‑house developers, allowing them to...
Hertz Teams With eBay to Drive More Digital Auto Sales
Hertz Car Sales is launching a dedicated digital showroom on eBay, featuring more than 8,000 "Hertz Certified" near‑new vehicles. The partnership gives Hertz exposure to eBay’s massive automotive marketplace, which generated roughly $80 billion in gross merchandise volume in 2025. Listings...
Crypto.com Launches In-App Travel Booking Service
Crypto.com has introduced Crypto.com Travel, an in‑app booking platform built with travel‑tech firm Bookit. The service gives users access to more than one million global listings—including hotels, flights, cruises and car rentals—and roughly 20 million tickets for live events. Bookings are...
Amex Debuts AI Training Programs for Small Businesses
American Express announced on May 6 that it is launching two AI‑focused initiatives for small businesses. In partnership with the nonprofit Generation, Amex will provide free, practical AI upskilling courses in English and Spanish, while a collaboration with Scholarship America will...
Fed Data Shows Global Supply Chain Pressure Hits 4-Year High
The New York Fed’s Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI) jumped to 1.82 in April, its highest reading since July 2022. The surge follows the Iran‑Israel conflict, which has disrupted freight routes and pushed fuel prices higher. Fed President John...
OpenTrade Raises $17 Million to Meet Stablecoin Infrastructure Demand
OpenTrade, a UK‑based stablecoin infrastructure platform, closed a $17 million strategic round, bringing its total capital raised to over $30 million. The funding, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC and CMCC Global, gives the firm...
ThredUp AI Agents Personalize Shopping in Real Time
ThredUp introduced its first agentic AI experience, assigning real‑time personal agents to shoppers on its resale platform. The agents ingest clickstream data across channels and use reinforcement learning to reshape product listings instantly, aiming to boost conversion and retention. The...
FIS and Anthropic Collaborate to Enable Agent-First Banks
FIS Global and AI firm Anthropic have co‑developed a Financial Crimes AI Agent that automates anti‑money‑laundering investigations, delivering results in minutes. The agent, built with Anthropic’s Claude models and FIS’s unified data infrastructure, will be first deployed at BMO and...
Crypto’s Post-Charter Playbook Runs on Stablecoins and Asset Custody
Crypto firms are shifting from consumer‑focused apps to institutional services by securing U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) trust charters. The OCC has issued more than a dozen charters in the past six months, enabling companies such...
FinTechs Race to Fix the Middle Market’s Finance Gap
Middle‑market firms ($1M‑$50M revenue) are outgrowing entry‑level accounting tools but can’t yet justify full ERP systems, creating a finance‑infrastructure gap. PYMNTS Intelligence data shows only 43% of fast‑growing companies feel their tools match scale, and cash shortages occur four times...
CLARITY Act Compromise Propels Digital Asset Shares Higher
Lawmakers reached a bipartisan compromise on the CLARITY Act, allowing crypto firms to continue offering activity‑based rewards while banning interest on passive stablecoin deposits. The deal sent digital‑asset stocks higher on May 4, with Circle up 20%, BitGo 10%, Coinbase 7%...
Wage Slowdown Leaves Gig Work Filling Pay Gaps
Private-sector wages and salaries rose 0.7% in Q1, while total compensation increased 0.9% thanks largely to benefits. On a 12‑month basis, wage growth slowed to 3.4%, and after inflation the real gain was a mere 0.1%. The slowdown is reflected...
Fed’s Barr Says Private Credit Stress Could Trigger Larger Credit Issues
Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr warned that stress in the $1.8 trillion private‑credit market could trigger a psychological contagion, spilling over into the broader corporate bond market. While direct bank exposure appears limited, ties to insurers and the sector’s opaque valuation...
Bessent Warns of Threat of AI-Powered Bank Account Hacks
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that AI‑driven tools could soon hack bank accounts, urging banks to treat Anthropic’s Mythos model as a critical security asset. In a May 3 interview, he highlighted a recent meeting with Fed Chair Jerome Powell...
Verifone Owner in Talks to Buy Payments Firm Moneris
Canadian banks RBC and BMO are in advanced talks with private‑equity firm Francisco Partners to sell Moneris, Canada’s largest merchant payment processor, in a deal valued at more than $2 billion. Moneris handles over 5 billion transactions a year, making it a...
Mother’s Day, but Make It Platinum
The National Retail Federation projects Mother’s Day spending to reach $34.1 billion in 2025, with 84 % of U.S. adults planning to celebrate. Online sales now account for 36 % of holiday purchases, reflecting a shift toward digital checkout. Luxury brands are capitalizing...
OpenAI CFO Says Company Hits Core Targets Despite Stretch Goals
OpenAI’s CFO Sarah Friar told Bloomberg the company is hitting its core financial targets despite pursuing more aggressive internal stretch goals. The firm projects revenue exceeding $30 billion this year and $284 billion by 2030, driven by a new ad‑supported ChatGPT tier....
AI Takes the Wheel at Europe’s Biggest Carmakers
European premium automakers Audi, BMW and Mercedes‑Benz are embedding artificial intelligence across factories, supply chains and vehicles. AI‑driven image processing now flags welding defects in real time, while autonomous robots handle material transport and generative AI compresses development cycles. BMW...
Fed Prepares New Playbook to Support Bank AI Adoption
The Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman announced a new supervisory playbook aimed at guiding banks through AI adoption. In a May 1 speech she cited Anthropic’s Mythos model, which can both strengthen and threaten cybersecurity, as a catalyst...
Big Insurance Backs Away From AI Risk and Startups Rush In
Major insurers including Berkshire Hathaway, Chubb and Travelers have secured state regulator approval to carve AI‑related damages out of standard liability policies, with more than 80% of requests approved in states such as Florida, Connecticut and Maryland. The new ISO...
ChatGPT Finds Your Pizza but Loses the Checkout
ChatGPT recently added native ordering integrations for Starbucks and Little Caesars, letting users discover menu items within a conversational interface. In practice, the flow stalls when checkout requires a handoff to the brands' separate apps or websites, adding minutes of...
Stablecoins Grew Up. Now Come the Rules
Stablecoins are moving from niche experiments to mainstream finance as Visa expanded its settlement pilot to nine blockchains, reaching a $7 billion annual run rate, while Meta began offering stablecoin payouts to creators. FinTech OnePay teamed with the Tempo blockchain to...
Lemonade and Porch Show AI Is Rewriting Insurance Math
Lemonade and Porch Group reported that AI-driven automation is reshaping core insurance functions, slashing loss‑adjustment expense ratios to about 4% and enabling premium per employee to exceed $1 million. Lemonade’s revenue jumped 71% to $258 million and added 158,000 new customers, while...
ERP Data Can Fuel Enterprise AI. So Why Wont Vendors Let It?
SAP’s latest API policy restricts how customers can tap ERP data for AI, sparking pushback from large enterprises. CFOs view ERP data as a strategic asset for AI‑driven finance, yet the new rules create compliance uncertainty. While SAP and peers...
61% of North America Middle Market Companies Use Cards to Speed Cash Flow
A Visa‑PYMNTS report of 1,457 CFOs shows 61% of North American middle‑market firms now accept card payments to accelerate cash collection. The same study finds AI tools are used by 42% of U.S. companies for working‑capital efficiency, while Europe leads...
Trulioo Sees 10x Gains From Smarter Data Use
Trulioo’s chief technology officer, Hal Lonas, says firms that turn raw data into real‑time decisions are seeing ten‑fold improvements in onboarding, approvals and credit decisioning. Most companies still hoard data, which expands their attack surface and makes them vulnerable to...
Mastercard and Wells Fargo Target the Friction Slowing B2B Cards
Mastercard and Wells Fargo executives say the $80 trillion B2B payments market is at an inflection point as buyers demand more control and suppliers seek faster, lower‑cost settlements. They argue that virtual cards can deliver straight‑through processing, reducing manual invoice handling and...