Employees have been loud and clear: they want fast, personalized payments. They expect on-demand access to earned wages, the flexibility to choose their pay frequency, and customized payment methods, including options like prepaid cards or mobile wallets. Payment options are so important, they can be a factor in whether or not an employee will take a job. Employers have no choice but to adapt or risk losing talent. For many companies, meeting this demand is a daunting task.
Artificial intelligence’s ability to process data quickly and make optimal decisions is particularly valuable in automating payment solutions. However, to fully leverage AI’s potential and provide a seamless experience, employers must partner with a comprehensive global payouts orchestration platform. By combining these technologies, organizations can unlock the full benefit and deliver a cohesive solution that meets the needs of payees, globally.
What Is a Payout Orchestration Strategy?
Payout orchestration is an advanced approach to managing payment transactions that uses technology to optimize a payment transaction. While companies can manage payments manually—and many do—payout orchestration streamlines the process by centralizing all of the payment components to create a more effective and efficient payment system. It connects the payor, payee, financial institution, and payment method—like an e-wallet, bank transfer or card—and intelligently routes the transaction.
Payout orchestration is an evolution in payment strategy that unlocks access to global payments and incorporates employee preferences to create a better payment experience. By leveraging payout orchestration, businesses can easily scale and adapt payments to provide fast, secure, and cost-effective payments to employees. As expectations around payment speed and flexibility evolve, companies with a thoughtful payout orchestration strategy will be better positioned to compete in the global marketplace.
Partnering with a third-party payout orchestration platform is often the best way to provide payment diversity to meet modern standards. A third-party platform will have a complete menu of payment options for employees and offer other customizable solutions, like instant and on-demand payments. The right payouts orchestration strategy and partner can immediately elevate a company from single-bank, single-rail solution payments to an endless variety of options available globally. Payout orchestration also benefits business operations. A survey S&P Global says that payout orchestration reduces the engineering requirements and operational overhead needed to manage multiple payment iterations. As a result, payment teams can dedicate time to higher value tasks. Overall, payout orchestration will give employees a better payment experience through a simplified system at a lower cost.
AI Will Make Payment Decisions Faster
AI is once again transforming the payments industry. Already, most financial institutions globally are using machine learning systems to predict cash flows, analyze fraud and understand customer spending and saving patterns, including important characteristics like understanding credit scores. In the payments industry, experts expect AI will provide businesses with smarter routing options for global payments through increased speed and efficiency. Global payouts orchestration is already intelligently automating payment transactions and centralizing data. AI will bolster a payout orchestration strategy and improve the customer experience through speed and accuracy.
AI will also create valuable efficiencies in treasury management on payments platforms, directing algorithms to predict business outcomes around functions like employee payroll. Often payments can have a major impact on a business’ cash on hand, but AI can play a huge role in better predicting cash flow alongside payments, as well as outlying factors like currency fluctuations. With AI incorporated in the payout orchestration strategy, businesses can gain better insight into business operations to ensure they have the funds needed to cover both payments as well as other business expenses.
Payout Orchestration and AI Are a Team
AI has the potential to drive tremendous value for businesses, so it is easy to understand the unbridled enthusiasm.
And, the enthusiasm is unbridled. Companies like Visa, for example, have spent $3 billion in the last decade investing in AI and data infrastructure to transform payments. However, companies should first ask themselves what problem they expect AI to solve. AI, which applies rapid data processing to deliver important information to the end user, isn’t curating a solution but rather speeding toward the best decision. In payments, the orchestration provides the options and facilitates the transaction to deliver. AI makes the decision. That decision-making capability is extremely valuable, but a quality global payouts orchestration platform is essential to realize the full value of AI and truly capture all of the benefits.
Choice isn’t the only factor. AI is only as powerful as the data that it has access to. A payouts orchestration platform may have the right payment options available but lack the data necessary for the AI technology to make the right decision. Companies should partner with a payout orchestration platform that can offer both a comprehensive suite of payment options as well as a data bank for AI to make an accurate end decision.
There is no doubt that AI has the power to improve the payments industry—but it can’t do it alone. Companies must first have a solid foundation with the right payouts orchestration software and practices in place. Laying the groundwork starts today.
