Dive Brief:
- The payments processor Fiserv outlined its plans Wednesday to use data and artificial intelligence to help merchants improve their sales.
- The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company already has a team of people sifting through transaction data to come up with useful information for clients, but said in an earnings call that it expects artificial intelligence to turbocharge that process.
- Fiserv hopes to offer information culled via artificial intelligence to merchants in the fall, CEO Frank Bisignano told analysts on the call.
Dive Insight:
With revenue rising 7% during the quarter that ended on June 30 compared to the same period in 2023, Fiserv looked ahead to the better use of data from the millions of transactions processed on its products each year and how that will drive future growth.
Bisignano called the increased use of data an opportunity to create more value for the company’s customers. Data, he said, “can be an important growth driver.”
The company has a data team that predates the dawn of generative AI — which can write articles and carry on a conversation nearly as well as a person — but Bisignano expects AI to help the company better leverage the information it has access to.
Data is now “available in real-time, granular to the transaction level, and multi-faceted in that it expands on merchant banking activity,” the CEO said.
Credit card and cash payment transactions will be included in the data the company uses, he said on the call.
The use of artificial intelligence in data analysis should also help Fiserv better combat fraud, Bisignano added. Fiserv is far from the only financial institution that plans to use artificial intelligence to protect customers.
While the effort is still in its early stages, Bisignano said Fiserv is already testing the service with some companies that use Clover, the company’s credit card processing service aimed at small businesses.
The company reported second-quarter revenue rose to $5.1 billion, lifting net income 31% over the year-ago quarter to $909 million.
