Human + AI: The New Power Duo Transforming Payments

Artificial intelligence is reshaping the payments industry at a pace we’ve never seen before. In our latest MPE podcast episode, Bram Vreugdenhil, Co‑founder of PaymentGenes Recruitment, and Anton Kornilov, Global Executive Financial Services, shared an honest and forward‑looking conversation about AI’s transformative impact, the readiness gap across organizations, and the future of human‑machine collaboration in payments.

This episode was recorded with MPE 2026 as part of our collaboration with the event taking place March 17–19. You’ll find more details about the PaymentGenes Recruitment team’s participation at the end of this article.

This piece blends their insights with the latest 2025–2026 industry research to help leaders understand what’s coming next, and how to prepare.

Summary for Readers

This episode is a must‑listen for leaders in payments, fintech, compliance, digital transformation, and product innovation who want to understand:

• Why AI adoption is uneven, and what to do about it

• How humans and AI can collaborate effectively

• Why governance and strategy matter more than tooling

• How regulation is reshaping payment innovation

• What the payments organization of 2026 should look like

1. The State of AI in Payments: A Rapidly Scaling Reality

What was once viewed as innovation testing is now becoming the backbone of modern payment operations.

• AI now automates 30–40% of manual payment processing tasks, cutting errors by 25% and saving organizations $2–5M annually. [crowdfundinsider.com]

• 70% of payment processors already use AI to power fraud detection, increasing peak‑load scalability by up to 35%. [crowdfundinsider.com]

• Adoption in transaction processing jumped from 45% (2020) to 72% (2023). [intelligentcio.com]

These numbers echo Bram’s point in the episode:

“Payments is a trust‑critical industry where every operational gain directly impacts business integrity and customer confidence.”

2. The Middle‑Management Bottleneck (and Why It Matters)

A key theme in the conversation: companies aren’t struggling because AI isn’t ready, they’re struggling because their organizations aren’t.

Both Bram and Anton highlighted that middle management is often where AI momentum quietly stalls. Not due to bad intentions, but due to:

• fear of disruption

• unclear ownership

• lack of alignment with existing processes

• risk aversion amplified by regulatory pressure

Industry‑wide data backs this up:

• Over 70% of AI initiatives fail to scale due to weak planning, siloed ownership, and legacy system constraints. [keymakr.com]

• Fintech's point to data quality, transparency, and compliance as their top barriers.  

Bram circles back to a core truth:

“AI needs distributed ownership, not a single innovation team sitting in a corner.”

Without governance, clarity, and cross‑functional accountability, even the most powerful AI roadmap will get stuck.

3. The “Buddy System”: A Practical Adoption Model

Anton introduced one of the most compelling takeaways from the episode: the buddy system between technical/product teams and business units.

This model pairs:

• one colleague who understands the tech

• one who understands the business dynamics

…creating a bridge for learning, trust, and faster experimentation.

Global data validates this approach:

• Human‑AI collaboration boosts operational efficiency by 34% and reduces decision‑making time by 29%.  

• 80% of financial services executives believe that human‑AI teams outperform humans or AI alone.  

“People need a safe environment to try, fail, and learn with AI — not a top‑down mandate. The buddy model solves that.” Anton Kornilov

This type of collaborative adoption builds literacy, confidence, and organization‑wide readiness, especially in teams furthest from technology today.

4. Regulation & Trust: The AI Act Era

Trust, compliance, and transparency came up multiple times in the episode, and for good reason.

The EU AI Act will reshape how payments companies design and deploy AI systems:

• Tools used in creditworthiness or credit scoring (classified as high‑risk) must meet strict transparency, logging, data quality, and human oversight requirements. [eajournals.org]

• The European Banking Authority found no contradictions with existing payments legislation, but firms will need to integrate frameworks effectively. [global.fujitsu]

• By 2026, the EBA will coordinate supervisory approaches and harmonize enforcement across the EU. [link.springer.com]

In the podcast, Bram and Anton reinforced that regulations are guardrails.

“Regulation pushes organizations to be better — more transparent, more responsible, and more structured in how they use AI,” Bram noted.

Compliance must become part of AI design, not an afterthought.

5. AI + Humans = The Payments Company of the Future

When asked what a payments organization built today should look like, Anton envisioned a future where:

• AI agents handle pattern recognition, prediction, and repetition

• Humans focus on judgment, ethics, creativity, and stakeholder relationships

A blended workforce, not a replaced one.

This aligns with broader industry trends around agentic AI and human‑machine collaboration.

Bram adds a strong reminder:

“Your AI strategy must flow into every part of the organization. If you can’t measure the impact, you can’t tell a story, and you can’t scale.”

The payment company of 2026 is one where AI is embedded, interpretable, and routinely audited, not a glossy innovation layer placed on top.

6. Payments in 2026: A Landscape of Acceleration

To close out the episode, both speakers reflected on the momentum they see unfolding:

• AI adoption is moving from pilots to enterprise‑wide programs

• Fraud prevention is entering a new era of autonomous detection

• Agentic commerce is transitioning from concept to practice

• Regulatory clarity is improving, not complicating adoption

• Talent and leadership readiness are becoming as important as technology

The message is clear:
2026 won’t be a year of “AI exploration”, it will be a year of “AI implementation.”

Our Participation at MPE 2026

PaymentGenes Recruitment at MPE 2026

Across Days 1 and 2, delegates can expect interactive 60‑minute sessions, speed‑learning tables, actionable one‑page takeaways, and practical insights focused on the skills and mindset needed to thrive in an AI‑driven industry. We’re proud to play a role in shaping these conversations and supporting the evolution of talent across the ecosystem.

MPE NXT Session 3: People in Payments – Merchant Payments Ecosystem

On March 17, 13:15–14:15, we will join a session dedicated to the human side of payments transformation. We’ll explore what it really takes to lead in an industry being reshaped by AI, shifting team dynamics, and rising expectations for people‑centric leadership. From building AI and digital readiness across organisations to offering career guidance for emerging payment professionals and even addressing burnout and long‑term resilience, this conversation puts people back at the centre of innovation.  

The session will be moderated by Julia Streets, MBE (Streets Consulting) and will feature an insightful panel including Anton Kornilov, Viktoria Soltesz (PSP Angels, Soltesz Institute), Miranda McLean FCIM McLean (Ecommpay), and Bram Vreugdenhil (PaymentGenes Recruitment).