Artificial intelligence has been the buzzword of 2023 ever since ChatGPT made its public debut earlier this year, with businesses, schools, universities and even non-profits looking for ways to integrate AI in their operations.
John Kim, chief product officer for PayPal, spoke with The Associated Press about how the company is using the early proliferation of artificial intelligence technologies in its business, as well as PayPal鈥檚 future in payments when there鈥檚 so much competition. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How have security issues changed since you鈥檝e been in this role or similar roles? How much more complicated or sophisticated are threats or opportunities to protect customer data?
A: One way you you can put it is that the fraud is a pretty big business, it鈥檚 growing and getting more sophisticated by the day. It used to be that you would get, let鈥檚 say, an email sent to you and you鈥檇 find something off about it, right? Like there鈥檚 a misspelling and you think 鈥淕osh, I don鈥檛 see this person misspelling this common thing鈥� or the email seems to imply that it doesn鈥檛 have a deep understanding of who I am. Then it became voices over the phone trying to convince you to do something. Now people can create whole identities using AI.
Q: How are you integrating AI into the work you鈥檙e doing? Where do you see the most promise for AI in payments?
A: We鈥檙e planning on launching three new products with ties to AI in the next 120 days. For example, we have a checkout feature we are rolling out that uses AI to keep track of all the permutations of your addresses and personal information that you might use, and use AI to predict the right one to use with the right merchant. We currently try to detect unusual patterns 鈥� for example, patterns where fraudsters are trying to test your stolen card out to see if it鈥檚 good or not 鈥� and alert you through the PayPal wallet so you can get that card shut down with your bank quickly. But detecting these patterns can get really complicated, and the patterns can change on the fly, so AI we believe will help us anticipate these changes and keep us ahead.
Q: But on that same point, where do you think AI is being oversold in some ways, or where do you think that the use case in your industry isn鈥檛 really there quite yet?
A: I think AI has captured a lot of people鈥檚 imaginations this year. It鈥檚 made its way to boardrooms, into stores, every product conversation. Some people have been skeptical, and I think some skepticism is healthy. For example, we want to use AI to increase our chatbots鈥� capability to engage with customers, but how much do we invest in such technology 鈥� which can be expensive to develop and run 鈥� when a customer service agent could do it better? Cost is going to be a massive issue. But in this short timetable since ChatGPT launched in March, I think you can鈥檛 dismiss any claim you hear about AI at the moment because it鈥檚 moving so fast.
Q: A lot of competition has entered into the payments space in the last several years. Apple Pay. Google Pay. Buy now, pay later. PayPal is the oldest company in the online payments industry. What challenges have there been in trying to differentiate PayPal from the competition?
A: PayPal really was a one-of-a-kind company for much of the early part of its life. So back then it was really about just getting scale. You didn鈥檛 really have to sell the value proposition. But now we really have to focus on the value proposition. Customers every day choose how they wish to pay for things, so you need to provide value above just being a method to pay, like security and fraud protection, or letting people now they are fully protected while at the same time making us the easiest way to pay.
Ken Sweet, The Associated Press
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