The answer to when the e-commerce and related payments industry will adopt AI solutions is: they have been doing so for more than a decade. In this area of new technologies, artificial intelligence is not a seasonal trend, but rather a megatrend that is linked to another key factor in online shopping – seamless buying. Most of the key trends for 2025 stem from these two drivers.
You bought running shoes recently? You might be interested in socks too – other buyers ordered them as a bundle. If you ultimately didn’t make a purchase, don’t worry. In a few days, you’ll receive a marketing email and see matching ads on the websites you visit. And If you don’t want to order shoes or socks online, no problem – take a look, they’re also available in our physical store near you…
These online sales tactics are so familiar to us that we often don’t even consider them innovative anymore. We also don’t think of them as part of artificial intelligence, because AI is supposed to be something brand new, right? Well, in local markets like Germany and Austria, where such as Amazon, Zalando, MediaMarkt and other major online marketplaces dominate, all retailers have been under pressure to implement increasingly intelligent algorithms that “predict” their potential customers’ behaviors for several years now.
The same applies to chatbots. Well before the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, customers of more advanced online stores could already ask about offers or report issues via chat. For more complex queries, a human consultant would usually step in, but the initial contact was often handled by a bot. Of course, tools provided by OpenAI, as well as language models from Google or Microsoft, surpass earlier e-commerce bots in their conversational capabilities. Yet, their arrival has triggered a new kind of “arms race” among tech companies, pushing the boundaries of what AI can do in online retail.
AI implementation: From hype to business reality
For the past several months, managers responsible for implementing AI have often had free rein to experiment. According to the media narrative, artificial intelligence was expected to magically transform the way we work across all fields in no time. Companies eagerly hired new teams to build their own AI models, or integrate existing AI tools, to develop revolutionary products. However, in most cases, the real goal was a bit simpler – to optimize costs and gain a competitive advantage.
According to Statista, 32% of German businesses already use AI-powered tools. Meanwhile, Grand View Research estimated the global AI market value at $196.63 billion in 2023, with an anticipated 37% annual growth rate through 2030.
At the same time, the public perception of AI has shifted. Not long ago, social media users enthusiastically shared funny ChatGPT responses and marveled at AI-generated images. Today, spotting an extra finger on a model’s AI-generated “photo” can spark harsh criticism.
What was once seen as an imminent AI-driven revolution now feels—at least to many people—like an unfulfilled promise. While AI continues to evolve, its limitations and imperfections are becoming more apparent, leading to increased skepticism about whether it can truly deliver on the grand expectations set by the industry.
When (and where) will the AI revolution happen?
A similar shift is expected in the business world. Some executive teams will lose enthusiasm for AI, while others will take a more pragmatic approach, steadily refining and developing their AI-driven tools. For now, we are in the era of optimization, and any true breakthrough still lies ahead.
Despite AI’s impressive growth, reaching that breakthrough will require a critical mass of data, broad adoption, and overcoming technological barriers. The real revolution will come—whether through Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) or the continued evolution of current AI systems. Ironically, the latter may bring quicker and more tangible benefits to users. If AGI emerges, businesses will have to restart the experimentation process, and meaningful results may not be visible for several years.
For e-commerce and payments, AI’s most significant transformation in the coming years may not be in revolutionizing the buyer’s experience, but about enhancing shopping security. Cybercriminals are already using generative AI for deepfake scams, phishing attacks, and financial fraud, and these threats will only escalate. Fortunately, companies are training AI models to predict and counteract cyber threats in real time. For example, Mastercard’s AI-powered fraud detection system scans one trillion data points and determines within 50 milliseconds whether a transaction is legitimate or a scam. This technology has already improved fraud prevention rates by an average of 20%.
Rather than an immediate, disruptive AI revolution, we are witnessing a gradual transformation. In the short term, AI will continue optimizing the customer journey and enhancing security. The real game-changer -whether coming from AGI or a specialized version of current AI models – will take years to unfold. However, the companies that adapt and refine their AI strategies today will be the ones leading the market when the true breakthrough arrives.
If AI won’t drive growth in 2025, then what will?
Organizations invest in AI to cut costs, boost efficiency, and improve customer experience. However, for most companies, AI isn’t an end goal—it’s simply a tool that supports a much wider megatrend that has shaped online services since the early days of commercial internet: seamless user experience.
In e-commerce, this concept is known mostly as seamless shopping, which focuses on achieving new levels of convenience, intuitiveness, and automation. According to Statista, the most popular payment methods in Germany are PayPal and similar fast online payments. Even in Switzerland, a country known for its attachment to traditional finance, card payments surpassed bank transfers during the pandemic.Regardless of location, consumers expect financial products to simplify and accelerate everyday online transactions—whether it’s online shopping, bill payments, SMS transaction authorization, or toll payments.
Thus, the seamless experience trend (supported by AI but not defined by it) is shaping some of the most important developments in payments and e-commerce for 2025. Here are a few key trends to watch:
PAYMENTS
- The European battle of alternative payment methods
After dominating its home market, BLIK is now expanding into other European countries. It recently became available in Slovakia, and in the fall, it received approval from the National Bank of Romania to operate there. Additionally, BLIK is now more widely accessible through integration with Revolut.
At the same time, Western Europe is seeing the rise of the European Payments Initiative (EPI), a payment method similar to BLIK that bypasses traditional card authorization and bank accounts. After acquiring iDeal (Netherlands) and Payconiq (Belgium), EPI has launched in Germany and is preparing to enter France.
- Embedded finance
Initially considered just a buzzword, embedded finance has now firmly established itself in the payments industry. This concept involves integrating financial services—such as payments and consumer credit—directly into non-financial apps and platforms (e.g., e-commerce stores). This eliminates unnecessary redirects for customers and significantly enhances the shopping experience.
- Tokenization
While digital payments have long been associated with the decline of cash in favor of cards, we are now seeing the next stage of this transformation: the rise of tokenization. Instead of storing card numbers, transactions now use unique, randomly generated tokens, reducing the risk of data leaks and fraud. Tokenization also enables seamless recurring payments and one-click checkouts.
A prime example is Mastercard’s “Click to Pay” service, which simplifies transactions by replacing manual card entry. According to Mastercard research, nearly two-thirds of shoppers still struggle with manual card input, and 25% abandon their carts due to slow or complicated payment processes.
- Biometric Payments
Many institutions have implemented biometric verification as a fraud prevention measure over the past year. In Poland, a pilot program for PayEye, an iris-based payment system, was launched in select locations. Meanwhile, in Singapore, Visa introduced fingerprint-based payment verification.
However, behavioral biometrics is becoming even more common. This includes security measures like tracking typing speed, keystroke patterns, or other subtle behaviors to confirm user identity—less flashy than facial recognition but highly effective in preventing fraud.
The Payment 3.0 era
As overlapping trends and technological shifts reshape the payments industry, the global landscape is taking a new direction. We are entering the Payments 3.0 era, characterized by so-called orchestration and intermediaries. On one hand, globalization is accelerating, pushing for unified payment solutions across borders. On the other hand, each market has unique challenges and consumer preferences, requiring localized approaches.
As a result, more and more companies are looking to integrate local payment providers and deliver transaction processing value through a single integration. Companies today require solutions that are tailored to specific market needs while ensuring compliance with local regulations.
With Payments 3.0, businesses can scale globally while maintaining a localized payment experience, ensuring smoother transactions, reduced compliance risks, and enhanced customer satisfaction. The future of payments isn’t about one-size-fits-all solutions—it’s about smart, adaptive integration.
About Autopay
Autopay is a leading Polish fintech brand. In 25 years Autopay has become one of the largest technology companies in Poland providing services to the financial, telecommunications, and e-commerce sectors. The company was founded by two students, who were passionate about emerging technologies. Both of them still remain active members of the company’s board to this day.
The brand’s mission is to deliver an exceptional payment experience – creating a new level of convenience, intuitiveness, and automation. Autopay creates products and services that make everyday errands easier and faster.
Over 50,000 online businesses utilize Autopay’s products. The brand integrates flexible, end-to-end payment solutions to save time, reduce complexity and enable growth of your business. Over 10 million people use Autopay’s services monthly – making online purchases, managing bills, making phone top-ups, authorizing payments via SMS, using toll services, or purchasing electronic vignettes.
More than 2,5 million users are registered in the Autopay app, which offers toll services in Poland and abroad and vignettes to Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Hungary.
Autopay is a payment institution licensed by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority and a member of the Banking Technology Forum at the Polish Bank Association.
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