AppZen Launches Autonomous Cards for AI-Based Payment Controls – Digital Transactions
How common will agentic payments become, and how fast? Predictions vary, of course, but tech companies are releasing new advances in the autonomous technology almost daily. In the latest example, AppZen early Wednesday unveiled Autonomous Cards, intended for corporate card programs.
According to the San Jose, Calif.-based company, the new technology, which is set to become generally available Oct. 26, links to a company’s existing payment cards—used for purchasing, fleet operations, or other applications—then applies AI agents to monitor transactions. The agents can automate functions such as detecting suspicious activity, checking transactions against company policy, and reconciling statements.
The technology can perform functions related to the transactions while filling in context, AppZen says. This includes addition of details and purpose around the transaction for later reference.
The key, AppZen says, is to apply technology that can juggle these multiple factors while the transaction is in progress rather than after it posts. “Our agents continuously monitor spend, understand what was purchased, intervene when necessary, help employees and other transaction owners complete what is needed, and carry each transaction through policy, accounting, and resolution,” says Anant Kale, AppZen’s chief executive and cofounder, in a statement. “This is not the old card workflow with AI added to it.”
Cards the service aims at include purchasing cards, ghost cards, virtual cards, and fleet cards, AppZen says, with consideration of transaction type and business context. One key element of the technology, AppZen says, is controlling risk as new cards are added to corporate programs. Human review, when necessary, includes a case report assembled by the program. “Only exceptions that require approval or judgment are routed to people,” AppZen says.
Overall, Autonomous Cards “is a new operating model designed to make finance teams autonomous while keeping people in control of the decisions that require judgment,” says Kale, in a statement.
On the consumer side of the autonomous trend, Mastercard said early Wednesday it is expanding Agent Pay to offer more context around transactions initiated by AI. The move will engender more trust in agentic commerce, the card network says.
Mastercard has predicted 10% of online shoppers will be using the technology as a matter of routine within four years, with more than 300 million online shoppers around the world adopting it routinely by 2030. The card network’s report, “A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments,” was issued Sept. 8. Field work included surveys of 13,000 parent-and-teen pairs in 13 European countries.
