Written by Hannah Lange
(Reuters) – PayPal said on Thursday it is launching new products based on artificial intelligence as well as a one-click payment feature, as its chief executive tries to breathe new life into the payments giant.
This is the first major announcement under Alex Chriss, who joined PayPal in September, and the new products are another example of how companies are trying to capitalize on investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, which helped push US stock markets to record levels this month.
Investors are hoping that Chris, who was previously a senior executive at software company Intuit, will revive PayPal shares, which fell more than 22% from January last year due to margins that disappointed investors. Chris described 2024 as a “transitional year” for PayPal, and promised to increase revenue beyond transaction-related volume.
“The data that we have and our ability to see what people have actually bought and see what merchants are trying to target, I think artificial intelligence represents a huge opportunity for us,” Chris told Reuters in an interview.
PayPal this year will roll out a platform that uses artificial intelligence to enable merchants to reach new customers based on their past shopping history, using data from the nearly half a trillion dollars worth of merchant transactions processed globally.
Merchants will also be able to use a separate AI-based tool called Smart Receipts to recommend personalized items to shoppers in their email receipts, along with a cashback reward.
PayPal is offering a “one-click” payment feature called Fastlane, which in early tests has sped up checkout speeds by about 40%, along with new features for Venmo Business Files, the company said.
The S&P 500 rose to its fourth straight record closing high on Wednesday, driven in part by a rise in technology stocks amid optimism about artificial intelligence. PayPal reports fourth-quarter earnings on February 7.
(Reporting by Hannah Lange in Washington; Editing by Michelle Price and Emilia Sithole-Matarise)
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