When data is key: Optimizing payments with trillions of dollars worth of global transactions

AI is trending across industries and demographics. And while AI is poised to change how we live, work, and innovate, it’s become glaringly obvious that the true secret sauce is not the algorithm alone, but combined with a reliable rich dataset. 

We’re only just scratching the surface on how to actually use that data. Payments are no different. Online transactions hold an extreme richness of data. Payment Solution Providers (PSPs), including Adyen, traditionally offered solutions that use machine learning to help businesses optimize payments for things like fraud prevention and conversion. 

These solutions are very good at solving their piece of the puzzle, but each optimization lacks context on the entire journey of a payment.

Data is one of the main things holding payment optimization solutions back from holistic decision making. In order to build AI solutions that can advance the payments (and the entire financial) ecosystem, we need to invest in collecting, cleaning, structuring, and building controls around data that cover the full payments funnel. Only then can we start creating solutions like Adyen Uplift that change the paradigm of payment optimization.

At Adyen, we’ve accumulated an immense amount of data thanks to our enterprise-first focus, global reach, and processed volume of 1.3 trillion USD in 2024 alone.

Let’s take a look at what data we collect and how we leverage our rich dataset compliantly to combat fraud, optimize cost, and help global businesses increase conversion across the full payments funnel.