SA scientists develop next-gen digital ID tech — IT Web — “The technology, dubbed aiDX, is an advanced identification technology that uses deep science to simulate human cognition in order to confirm or determine the identity of a person to industrial grade standards on any smartphone or device equipped with a camera.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Orange to launch mobile-only bank with NFC payments and AI
Mobile network operator Orange is to launch a mobile-only bank in France in July this year that will offer customers NFC mobile payments, P2P mobile transfers using SMS and an artificial intelligence-based virtual assistant that will eventually be able to complete tasks including making transfers and putting funds in savings. More
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
Facebook Messenger adds group payments in the US
Facebook Messenger users across the US can now send and receive money between groups of people in a Messenger conversation by selecting the payments icon and then choosing who to send or request money from using a list of conversation participants. More
Facebook Messenger adds payment prompts using artificial intelligence
Facebook Messenger users across the US are now being prompted to send and request money transfers by an artificial intelligence-based feature that detects when a payment is being discussed in a conversation on the social media platform and responds with a suggestion designed to help the user complete that payment. More
Samsung reveals S8 with multi-biometrics, Samsung Pay reaches quarter of a billion transactions and adds online payments
Samsung has unveiled its latest Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus flagship devices, with support for iris and facial recognition technology and a fingerprint sensor which is now located on the back of the phone. Samsung Pass deals with major banks, an expansion of Samsung Pay to include online payments and details of its Bixby virtual assistant have also been announced. More
Starbucks to add gift cards to iMessage as Mobile Order & Pay grows
Starbucks customers across the US will soon be able to purchase gift cards using Apple Pay and send them to friends and family within Apple’s iMessage platform. The move comes as the coffee giant reveals it now has approximately nine million mobile paying customers with one in three using Mobile Order & Pay, which accounted for 8% of all transactions made across US stores last month. More
Samsung Galaxy S8 to feature Bixby virtual assistant
A virtual assistant called Bixby will come preinstalled on a “subset” of applications on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship smartphone, Samsung has confirmed... More
Capital One pilots text-based banking chatbot
A group of Capital One customers have begun piloting Eno, a chatbot that uses artificial intelligence to answer requests for account information and to pay bills via SMS and emojis... More
Mastercard analyzes social media payments buzz
Digital wallets were the new way to pay most discussed by consumers on social media in 2016, the 2017 edition of the Mastercard Digital Payments Study has found, with consumers around the world also increasingly interested in the payments possibilities of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, smart home assistants, wearables, and the Internet of Things... 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
Mobile World Congress survey: IoT and mobile payments ‘biggest business opportunities’ for 2017
The Internet of Things (IoT) is seen as the biggest business opportunity of 2017 by nearly half of visitors and exhibitors at Mobile World Congress surveyed by the GSMA (48.2%), followed by mobile payments (14.5%) and artificial intelligence (14%). More
Google Assistant comes to more Android phones
Google Assistant will be made available to all phones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating systems, Reuters reports... More
Google Home owners get voice commands for grocery shopping
Owners of the Google Home speaker powered by Google Assistant can now buy groceries using voice commands... More
Amazon and Google to add phone calls for virtual assistants?
Consumers with Amazon Echo or Google Home could use the virtual assistant devices to make or receive phone calls later this year, the Wall Street Journal reports... More
IBM’s Watson integrates Visa Token Service to enable tokenized payments on connected devices
IBM is to integrate Visa Token Service into its Watson IoT cognitive technology platform to enable payments to be embedded into “any device connected to the Internet of Things (IoT)”, with all of IBM’s Watson IoT Platform customers gaining access to Visa payment services via IBM’s cloud service — rather than businesses needing to be approached on a one-by-one basis... More
Starbucks customers get voice ordering as mobile orders and payments continue to grow
US consumers can now place orders from coffee giant Starbucks by speaking into the Starbucks iOS mobile app or to Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. The move comes as the company reveals that mobile orders made up 7% of all its US transactions in the last quarter, with mobile payments now accounting for 27%. More
Galaxy S8 to get iris scanner for payments authentication?
Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone will come with an iris scanner to allow owners to unlock their devices and authenticate purchases with their eyes, according to The Guardian... More
Ant Financial eyes up blockchain for Alipay
Alibaba’s payment affiliate Ant Financial is “definitely” looking into using blockchain to underpin its mobile payments platform Alipay, CEO Eric Jing has told CNBC, adding that artificial intelligence and blockchain will be “deeply” integrated into Ant Financial’s operations... More
Samsung Pay to get AI assistant?
Samsung is to add a virtual assistant called Bixby to Samsung Pay, a Samsung Pay Beta page seen by Galaxy Club reveals... More