Kazakhstan pilots face recognition bus ticketing
A new bus ticketing system that lets passengers use face recognition to make hands-free payments for their tickets has entered pilot testing in Kazakhstan’s capital city of Nur-Sultan... More
Bots
Facebook approaches banks for Messenger bot banking
Facebook taps banks, but for chatbots not purchase data like Google — Techcrunch — “Account linking enables people to receive real-time updates in Facebook Messenger where people can keep track of their transaction data like account balances, receipts, and shipping updates… The idea is that messaging with a bank can be better than waiting on hold over the phone — and it’s completely opt-in. We’re not using this information beyond enabling these types of experiences — not for advertising or anything else.”
Microsoft rolls out support for Masterpass payments
Microsoft Pay is now available with Masterpass — Microsoft — “US-based consumers using the latest Microsoft Edge browser on Windows 10 devices can sign in to their Microsoft account and use Microsoft Pay to make secure purchases wherever Masterpass is accepted online. More broadly, Microsoft Pay allows for a seamless and convenient consumer experience within the Microsoft ecosystem, including paying bills in Outlook, and buying goods or services in apps or bots.”
Facebook patent sets out how AIs could accept Messenger payments
Processing payment transactions using artificial intelligence messaging services — USPTO — “One or more embodiments use natural language processing to analyze messages from the user to the messaging bot, and from the messaging bot to the user, to identify a product and a request to purchase the identified product. Based on the identified product and the request to purchase the product, one or more embodiments initiate a payment transaction on behalf of the user based on a natural language conversation and without redirecting the user away from the communications session.”
Bank of America adds AI assistant to mobile banking app
Bank of America delivers first widely available AI–driven virtual financial assistant — Bank of America — “Bank of America is rolling out the first widely available AI-driven virtual assistant of its kind in financial services, Erica, to its 25 million mobile clients… Erica is designed to learn from clients’ behaviours over time, helping them accomplish simple to complex tasks within the mobile banking app with easy-to-follow prompts. Clients can interact with Erica any way they choose, including texting, talking or tapping options on their screen.”
Sberbank lets customers pay via Telegram messaging bots
Sberbank and Telegram create unique payment solution — Sberbank — “The solution allows payments to be accepted from MasterCard, Visa and Mir bank cards. In addition, in a first for Russia, it is now possible to pay using Apple Pay and Android Pay within Telegram bots. This means that now Sberbank partners can easily accept payments as well as orders via Telegram bots.”
Mastercard rolls out Messenger payment bots with US retailers
Subway, FreshDirect and The Cheesecake Factory have begun rolling out payment bots for Facebook Messenger across the US, allowing their customers to secure and complete payments using Mastercard’s Masterpass digital payment platform without having to leave the instant messaging service. More
Turkish retailer adds payments to Messenger bot
Istanbul-based mobile retailer Getir has integrated Mastercard’s Masterpass service into its Facebook Messenger bot, enabling customers to choose products, place their order and pay from within a chat window... More
PayPal launches Slack payments bot
PayPal customers in the US, UK, Australia and Canada can now send money to each other using a PayPal bot on team messaging service Slack... More
Amex adds card feature for Messenger bot
American Express has unveiled an Add a Card feature to its Amex bot for Messenger, allowing eligible US Consumer and Open card members to add their card and billing information for purchases on Facebook... More
Facebook update brings tokenization to Messenger payments
Facebook has introduced a payments update to its Messenger platform that will allow US businesses who are not integrated with Stripe or PayPal to process payments within both messages and webview using tokenization technology... More
Mastercard to launch artificial intelligence bots for banks and merchants
Mastercard has unveiled plans to launch artificial intelligence (AI) bots for its merchant and bank partners, allowing consumers to use chat, messaging and natural language interfaces to shop and manage their finances... More
Amex bot notifies purchases through Facebook Messenger
American Express customers will soon be able to get real-time notifications about their purchases through Facebook’s Messenger app after the company demonstrated how card members can “sign up to receive real-time notifications about their purchases and important information about card benefits and services related to those purchases via an Amex bot for Messenger”... More