Visa has introduced a new AI Advisory Practice to customers around the world through its existing consulting operations.
The service, available immediately, operates under the Visa Consulting & Analytics umbrella which encompasses more than 1,000 consultants in 75 offices on six continents, and will soon include hundreds more AI experts Visa plans to hire this year, said Carl Rutstein, Visa's global head of advisory services, via email.
The move, which the San Francisco company announced Wednesday, comes in response to a recent uptick in demand for insights, recommendations and data about how to respond to new generative AI capabilities from Visa's customers that span financial institutions, merchants and payments providers, Rutstein said.
The strongest demand is coming from banks and payments firms in North America and Asia, while companies in the U.K., Germany and France are also rapidly advancing their use and adoption of AI. Brazil is leading other Latin American countries that also show strong interest in AI use cases, according to Rutstein.
"Specifically, customers are interested in how generative AI can be used to simulate customer behavior, enable payment businesses to anticipate market trends and develop personalized, efficient payment solutions," he said.
Harnessing generative AI to improve fraud-detection systems is also high on the list of priorities for companies coming to Visa for advice.
"By simulating new fraud techniques, [generative] AI can enable early detection and prevention of unprecedented frauds," Rutstein said, noting that the technology can also be deployed to predict transaction failures and suggest preventive measures to avoid payment outages.
Organizations are also asking Visa for guidance on how to invest strategically in AI resources and how to plan for a return on investment, he said.
"The timeline to see tangible results from investing in [generative] AI models can vary depending on several factors, ranging from the complexity of the models, the quality and quantity of data available, the level of AI expertise within the firm and the specific use cases being addressed," Rutstein said.
During the last decade, Visa has invested more than $3 billion in AI and data infrastructure, according to Rutstein.
"It's important to remember that ROI is based on selecting the right tool, or type of AI, needed to solve a particular problem," he said.
Visa's new consulting practice will serve as a helping hand to clients to define their own responsible AI strategies while developing best practices across the industry, Rutstein said
A key element of Visa's AI consulting unit's work will be helping financial services and payments firms balance risk in how they plan to use generative AI, Rutstein said.
"The rapid and unsupported implementation of [generative] AI could inadvertently expose an organization to ethical, performance, operational and reputational issues," he said.
Visa's AI advisory service has been in the works for a while, but the White House's Oct. 30 order requiring organizations to pursue safe, secure and trustworthy AI underscored its relevance, Rutstein said.
"It is essential to maintain transparency of AI applications to internal and external stakeholders for regulatory compliance and trust-building," he said.
