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As artificial intelligence continues to weave itself into payments, organizations are adding new AI-enabled services and considering options for its use. Two of the latest are Hawk AI GmbH with a check-fraud prevention tool for U.S. financial institutions and EMVCo as it begins work on a global specification for its role in agentic commerce.
Munich-based Hawk, which has a New York City office, said its check-fraud detection tool will help banks and credit unions pinpoint and block altered, forged, or counterfeit checks, which could help lower their check-fraud losses.
Using AI image forensics and data, which Mitek Systems Inc. helps supply, the tool can detect anomalies such as subtle differences and patterns that are difficult for humans to pick up on. The tool also can alert financial institutions to unusual deposit patterns or rapid funds movement, Hawk says.
Though check use overall is declining, it remains a popular payment option for business-to-business transactions. The U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a 2023 bulletin about a surge in check-fraud schemes targeting the U.S. mail system.
In related news, EMVCo, the international card-payments standards body, says it is beginning the work to potentially create a specification for agentic commerce. Agentic commerce enables AI agents to engage with online shoppers throughout their shopping and buying, including the product-discovery phase, purchase, and post-purchase support. AI agents, which leverage artificial intelligence to complete tasks on behalf of a shopper, have the ability to understand individual customer needs and preferences and offer personalized recommendations.
EMVCo says it is working on how EMV specifications, including 3-D Secure, EMV payment tokenization, and EMV Secure Remote Commerce, might be adapted to improve the function and security of card-based agentic payments.
“EMVCo developed the global specifications that enable trusted card-based payments for billions of consumers and businesses worldwide. There is now a clear opportunity to collaborate with participants across the industry to extend this experience to support agentic payment solutions,” Patrik Smets, EMVCo executive committee chair, says in a statement.
