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NOVEMBER 11, 2025 |
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A little help: What percentage of chief financial officers (CFOs) have leveraged genAI for over five use cases in 2025? |
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A) 34% B) 44% C) 54% D) 64% |
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POINT-OF-SALE |
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Affirm’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) increased 42% YoY to $10.8 billion during its fiscal Q1 2026 (ended September 30, 2025). |
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The buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider demonstrated strength across other key metrics: |
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Revenues jumped 34% YoY to $933 million.
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Active consumers grew 24% YoY to 24.1 million.
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Monthly transactions per active consumer increased 20% to 6.1.
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And the number of active merchants leapt up 30% YoY to 419,000. |
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |
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At Bank of America’s (BofA) investor day, its first in over a decade, the bank said it spent more than $118 billion on technology in the last 10 years. In 2025, its annual spending on new technology initiatives will reach $4 billion out of a total of $12.7 billion. Of the $4 billion, $338 million will go to data capabilities. This is a crucial and scalable foundation for enterprise AI that includes unified data across business and advanced analytics. |
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BUY NOW, PAY LATER |
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Block’s gross profit increased 18% YoY to $2.66 billion, per its Q3 2025 earnings release. |
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Even so, investors sent Block shares down 24% after the fintech missed its revenue expectations of $6.31 billion at $6.11 billion, per CNBC. |
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But Block raised its gross profit guidance for 2025 to $10.25, or 15% growth YoY, based on the strength of Cash App’s performance across its card product, Cash App Afterpay, and Cash App Borrow. |
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REPORT |
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AI is reshaping how consumers discover, communicate, and interact with payment products and services. But most providers are unprepared for the shift. Those that invest early in chatbots, checkout personalization, and hybrid AI-human support will strengthen retention and trust as competition intensifies. |
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Key stat: Only 25.0% of financial services professionals cited AI and predictive analytics as an area they’re investing in to improve customer retention, per our April 2025 survey in partnership with MoEngage. |
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Key question: How will AI transform the payments customer life cycle, and how should payment providers respond? |
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(EMARKETER subscription required to read the full report) |
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CHART OF THE WEEK |
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Key stat: US outstanding credit card debt reached $1.233 in Q3 2025, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. | | | |
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