AI shopping assistants may pick a different way to pay than you do

If an AI assistant does your shopping, it may choose how to pay based on the goals you give it. Brian Dammeir, who leads payments and financial management at Plaid, laid out that idea in an Oct. 19 interview at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas. Payments Dive published it.

What changed

Dammeir says an AI agent will not be bothered by things that annoy people, such as confusing checkouts, account sign-up forms or password setup. It will look at what you told it to favor, like discounts or card rewards, and pick the payment method that fits. Plaid is a San Francisco company that moves account information between banks and financial apps.

You might tell your agent you love travel, or that you just want cash in your pocket. The agent does the expert work. You do not have to understand it.

What to expect

Dammeir says most agents today have only one or two wallets available. He expects that to look very different in a year, with many more options. In his view, that includes paying by bank in certain situations. He also says banks, card issuers, merchants and card networks may see shifts in how people pay.

What is not known yet

These are one executive's expectations, not a finished trend. Dammeir said the outcome depends on what the experience feels like to shoppers. Whether cards, bank payments or something else comes out ahead, he said, only time will tell.