MIAMI BEACH, Fla.—Mention artificial intelligence today and responses will likely range from laissez faire to panic with everything in between. When it comes to AI and payments, experts on a Smarter Faster Payments 2024 panel agreed the reality lies in that middle area—and that the human element remains critical.

“I think it’s very exciting to see all the interest and new use cases of AI, but when it comes to payments and financial services, before becoming mainstream, there will need to be guardrails established,” said Brian Rogers, CEO of LanaiLabs.ai, which focuses on leveraging AI in enterprises and research. “These guardrails going forward will be required to provide certain levels of recourse. Furthermore, pervasive AI in payments will require a human in the loop to ensure or validate these recourses. Think of it as an added layer of subjectivity.” 

Rogers stressed that people shouldn’t fear AI, adding that he considers AI a tool that “will ultimately make our lives a lot easier” and “not necessarily something that will harm us. But I do think that it’s really important that we have those guardrails or guidelines in place to ensure proper governance and safety.”

At the May 8 session “AI Is Coming for Your Payments: The Growing Impact of ChatGPT,” Sunayna Tuteja, Chief Innovation Officer at the Federal Reserve System, said that while science fiction often depicts AI as “completely utopian or completely dystopian, the reality is it’s neither end of the spectrum, it’ll be somewhere in the middle. Where it lands is going to be predicated by the decisions and choices all of us as leaders make within our institutions.”

“Currently, where we see the promise of this technology is very much in kind of a co-pilot mode,” rather than auto-pilot, said Tuteja, noting “the nascency of this technology.” 

“It’s very much in a co-pilot mode, and the human in the loop is super critical,” said Tuteja. 

Divyesh Juvariwala, Director, Payment Partnerships, PayPal, understands the global concern over AI, noting that “we as humans struggle with exponential change.” He likened it to horse-drawn carriage owners initially resisting the new machines at the dawn of the automobile age. And for AI and payments?

“Probably in the next few years nothing is going to drastically change,” said Juvariwala, “but it will slowly have incremental steps that in 10, 15, 20 years it will be a very different payments world.”