The Evident AI Payments Index evaluates the AI maturity of 12 of the world’s largest payment networks and processors. It is an independent, “outside-in” assessment conducted by a team of data scientists, index builders, AI researchers, and analysts, based on publicly available information. The 12 companies included were selected from among the largest global payment organizations, each with a minimum of $2 billion in annual revenue.
The Evident AI Payments Index methodology incorporates four key dimensions:
Talent [45%], measuring the number and concentration of AI employees, as well as visible initiatives to attract and retain talent.
Innovation [30%], including AI-focused research and patents, AI-related investments and acquisitions, and engagement with the open-source ecosystem.
Leadership [15%], reflected in the organization’s overarching AI narrative, the composition of the executive leadership team, and external communications from select C-level executives.
Transparency [10%], assessing the emphasis placed on responsible AI (RAI), as evidenced by published internal processes, the formation of key partnerships, the hiring of dedicated RAI talent, and the promotion of RAI principles.
2026 rankings
Announced in February, 9 of the 12 companies included in the rankings are headquartered in the United States.
| Company | Headquarters |
|---|---|
| Visa | USA |
| Mastercard | USA |
| PayPal | USA |
| American Express | USA |
| Stripe | USA |
| Block | USA |
| Adyen | Netherlands |
| Fiserv | USA |
| FIS | USA |
| Worldline SA | France |
| Global Payments | USA |
| Nexi | Italy |
Key findings
The Index shows how leading providers are applying AI, with growing use of agent-based approaches, to improve fraud detection, decisioning, and operational efficiency.
Visa’s recent research focuses on addressing the foundational infrastructure challenges required to enable “smart payment agents” capable of completing financial transactions on behalf of users or businesses. Visa’s “Scam Disruption” initiative applies advanced analytics and generative AI to analyze network data, identifying scam patterns before they cause widespread harm or generate significant fraud losses. The “Trusted Agent Protocol” establishes a secure framework for interoperable agents, using cryptographic techniques to distinguish legitimate agents from bad actors. Visa’s “Tokenized Asset Platform” enables banks to pursue asset digitization and smart-contract workflows that accelerate settlement, particularly for cross-border transactions. In addition, Visa recently completed the $925 million acquisition of Featurespace, strengthening its ability to apply advanced behavioral machine learning and transaction monitoring to fraud prevention.
Mastercard views AI agents as a way to meet growing customer demands for “unprecedented personalization, automation, and protection.” The company plans to anchor agentic commerce in near-term strategic partnerships, including collaboration around Google’s “Universal Commerce Protocol.” Mastercard also highlights how embedding generative AI into its Decision Intelligence platform enables real-time analysis of relationships across data, allowing the firm to “detect compromised cards twice as fast” as before.
Card networks such as Visa and Mastercard function as neutral infrastructure operators, setting global standards, enforcing rules, and providing the messaging rails that connect issuers and acquirers at scale. Payment processors, by contrast, specialize in execution—translating network rules into real-time operational outcomes for banks and merchants. PayPal operates a complex, end-to-end platform that spans consumer wallets, merchants, and checkout, domains where competitive differentiation is increasingly driven by speed of iteration and innovation rather than scale alone. This need for continuous innovation is reflected in the finding that payment processors Stripe, Adyen, and Block have the highest AI talent density—measured as a percentage of total employees—among the 12 firms included in the Evident AI Payments Index.
Teradata connection
The Evident AI Payments Index highlights the growing importance of agentic AI in the payments industry. Teradata’s Enterprise AgentStack enables banks to build, deploy, and manage AI agents, helping them move from experimental prototypes to scalable, production-grade solutions. The need to consolidate and analyze all payments generated by a bank’s customers is a key driver behind the upcoming “Payments 360” data product within Teradata’s Customer Intelligence Framework.