Apple

Apple and Ripple may have a potential idea to remove friction from mobile payments, but the implementation could make for a rough ride.

Apple Inc. hired Google’s top artificial intelligence executive to help the iPhone maker catch rivals in one of the most-important fields of modern technology.

As new customers visit a restaurant for the first time, Punchh Acquire delivers information about the customer and assigns them with digital identities and profiles.

The main problem is that Amazon's Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant can’t yet verify a person’s identity. But there are already workarounds for that issue — and the tech giants may solve it soon.

While building consumer trust in these new payments methods will undoubtedly take time, the possibility of freeing consumers from physical payment objects — cash, cards, phones — would be transformative, writes Beatta McInerney, business development manager for payments at ScanSource.

Regardless of some promising uptake numbers numbers, it’s obvious there are still many hurdles to clear before we see ubiquity, Rahul Shah of Applause writes.

A combination of software, operating system and development tools can turn in-vehicle "informatainment" systems into payment gateways, according to Jim Carroll, chief technology officer at Mobica.

Even if most consumers aren't leaving their plastic cards at home in favor of mobile wallets, the very idea of using a mobile wallet is no longer cutting-edge. But a few companies go the extra mile.

A better camera should mean more accurate facial recognition. Will it spur more banks to embrace the technology?

The rise of online and mobile commerce is forcing merchants to rapidly re-engineer their checkout options, while keeping an eye on emerging models that leverage artificial intelligence to streamline shopping — or bypass the store checkout process altogether, like Amazon Go.

OEM and other mobile payments can feed sales, marketing and recurring transactions for lenders, according to Steve Yi, co-founder and CEO of MediaAlpha.

With even the likes of WhatsApp and Google Chrome looking to integrate payment APIs into their offerings, this space is poised up for a lot of disruption, writes Sanat Rao, chief business officer and global head for Infosys Finacle.

Apple Inc. stores in China now welcome Alipay, marking the first time the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant has officially accepted a third-party wallet at any of its brick-and-mortar stores worldwide.

For financial institutions to match Venmo and Apple Cash's power, they need an embedded, mobile and social payment strategy, write Richard Crone and Heidi Liebenguth of Crone Consulting.

Apple is not going to sit idly as Facebook transforms its Messenger app into a platform for P-to-P payments and commerce.

Banks have strictly controlled adviser-client text communications due to regulatory concerns.

U.S. Bank, Bank of America and other firms are looking toward the day when the ultimate virtual assistant arrives, one capable of being personalized and working on any device.

Banks still have advantages in the battle against big tech firms like Amazon and Facebook, but they will need to capitalize on those to survive.

Merchants need to ensure they are poised and ready for a growing market of digital consumers, write Michael Mertz and Rich Wheeler from CardConnect.

For payments to keep up, merchants need to focus on the shift to subscriptions and the true personalization of processing, writes Suneera Madhani, CEO and founder of Fattmerchant.