Payments apps lean into generative AI

Whether you're solving financial crime or searching for the right marketing lingo, AI-powered solutions tirelessly support a range of payments industry sectors, financial analysts have noted. And some payments industry leaders are suggesting that OpenAI will fully inhabit the workplace in the near future, coexisting with Microsoft Office, email servers and business management software.

SymphonyAI, an enterprise AI SaaS provider, disclosed May 9, 2023, that it will partner with Microsoft to enhance its suite of vertically focused AI software solutions by leveraging the Microsoft Azure OpenAI service. The companies jointly shared near-term plans with media, stating the partnership will expand capabilities while offering advanced protection, security and a seamless user experience.

Sanjay Dhawan, CEO of SymphonyAI, pointed out that augmenting applications with generative AI will streamline workflows and reduce menial labor, allowing workers to focus on high-value tasks. "The result is transformative results at enterprise scale," he said. "Azure OpenAI Service will help us deliver the performance and reliability to increase the pace of innovation and build even more effective software. This combination means we can deliver our customers the most advanced AI solutions so they can compete effectively in rapidly changing markets."

Eric Boyd, corporate vice president, AI Platform for Microsoft, agreed that implementing Azure OpenAI capabilities in vertical enterprise applications such as SymphonyAI's Sensa Copilot will unleash the power of generative AI to businesses. "We are pleased to be working with SymphonyAI to implement our advanced technology for users' needs across many industries and use cases," he stated.

Unlock new efficiencies

Describing Sensa Copilot as a sophisticated AI assistant to financial crime investigators, SymphonyAI representatives said the solution is designed to automatically collect, collate and summarize financial and third-party information. SymphonyAI will integrate the Microsoft Azure suite, they noted, incorporating Cognitive Services, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cognitive Search, Azure API Management and Azure infrastructure into their six vertically focused solutions, which include retail, consumer packaged goods, finance, manufacturing, media, and IT/enterprise service management.

Kumar Abhimanyu, senior vice president, strategic partnerships at SymphonyAI, said the company has always been focused on providing advanced tools to customers and partners in language that is easy for everyone to understand, for experts and novices alike. He expects the Microsoft Azure OpenAI integration will help the company further "expand our offerings across a range of strategic industry verticals, unlocking new business efficiencies."

Emerging AI trends

Konstantine Buhler, partner at Sequoia Capital, anticipates continued growth in generative AI use cases. In an April 11, 2023, post in Forbes, "Generative AI is exploding. These are the most important trends you need to know," he set forth three emerging trends in the space:

1. Infrastructure: Describing current frameworks as "fat," Buhler said he expects companies that are building applications to develop leaner models as they learn how to add value.

2. Buy and build: Noting that some companies prefer outsourced AI models and cloud APIs and others want to build their own, Buhler predicted startups will graduate from APIs to their own smaller, more efficient models as they grow, and larger enterprises will use their own models as moats.

3. Societal changes: Expecting the far-sighted to survive the AI wave, Buhler suggested the ability to adapt, pivot and take advantage of unforeseen opportunities will be key.

"Generative AI has turned many assumptions on their head," Buhler wrote. "In the early days we thought AI would replace manual work, but robotics turned out to be harder than some parts of cognitive knowledge work. And, equally surprising, the approximate nature of generative models makes them better than expected at creative work and less than completely trustworthy on rote, mechanical tasks."

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