Christopher Waller, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, delivered another important speech on artificial intelligence and banking at Sibos. Waller has become an important voice on the implications of AI for financial services, including both the risks and opportunities for banking and payments.
He is also a frequent speaker on banking, economics, and technology. His recent speeches and testimony cover a range of topics, with many focused on payments and technology.
At Sibos, Waller’s remarks, Payments in the Age of AI Agents, focused “specifically on the state of artificial intelligence (AI) in payments and raising a few questions about how this technology could change the way payment systems operate.”
Two areas stood out:
- Potential for Cross-Border Payment Efficiency and Security. Payment routing involves finding the path that best balances cost, speed, and reliability. Similarly, cross-border payment service providers must manage complex foreign exchange conversion and liquidity mechanisms, including decisions about when and where to convert currencies and whether to net offsetting flows, and so forth. Given the right data and criteria, AI agents could potentially excel at these complex optimization problems, helping improve the efficiency of cross-border payments.
- Developments in Agentic Commerce. While consumer shopping receives a lot of attention in this area, business-to-business (B2B) purchases may be especially well suited for agentic commerce. B2B purchases are often recurring and abide by a set of rules, such as approved suppliers and budget limits, creating natural guidelines for agents to operate within. Agents could also potentially negotiate terms with suppliers and develop payment strategies to optimize working capital. However, the higher transaction values typical of B2B commerce also amplify the financial exposure associated with agent errors or unauthorized actions, making robust controls and monitoring essential. Agents supporting B2B purchases would also need to operate across a diverse set of payment rails. While payment cards dominate consumer e-commerce payments, businesses rely on a wider range of methods, including ACH, wire, instant payments, and cards.
American Express Moves Toward Agentic AI
As an illustration of how quickly commercial and enterprise card providers are moving towards agentic AI, consider American Express’ latest corporate card efforts.
American Express unveiled its next generation of corporate cards. The new offerings bring together the Corporate Cashback\ Card, integrated expense management software, the Amex Expense App, and agentic tools. According to American Express, these capabilities are designed to bring greater automation and efficiency to the corporate card experience. Here are several of the key features:
- Expense management software that automatically captures transaction data from Corporate Cashback Card purchases, giving finance teams greater visibility and faster reconciliation, plus personalized spend controls
- The Amex Expense app, designed to reduce friction for employees by automatically generating submission-ready expenses as purchases are made, minimizing the need for manual monthly expense reports
- Planned AI agents and Accounts Payable workflows designed to further automate and simplify financial operations
- End-to-end support, including onboarding and account management, along with financial tools designed to support businesses as they grow
American Express also goes deeper into the role of AI agents, highlighting expense agents that can help manage reporting requirements and insight agents that can give finance teams greater visibility into spending and help them manage it more effectively.
Takeaways
If you weren’t in Miami at Sibos, Waller’s speech is certainly worth reading. For large corporates, the developments of American Express offer a tangible example of where this evolution is heading—combining corporate cards, payments, expense management, and AI-driven tools into a more integrated financial operations experience.
