Westend61 – stock.adobe.com
Payments giant Visa set to cut thousands of jobs as competition in the sector intensifies
Visa will cut 7% of its workforce and increase the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to “evolve” how it works, according to an internal memo to staff.
In his message to over 34,000 employees, reported by Bloomberg, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said its technology and product teams will primarily be affected by the 2,600 job cuts.
The CEO wrote: “I have deep conviction that we are doing what is right for Visa, our clients and our partners as we continue to focus on driving efficiency across the company in order to reinvest in our highest potential opportunities.”
He told staff that AI is being used to change how employees work. “To capture the opportunities ahead and best position Visa to lead this transformation, we must continue evolving how we work,” wrote McInerney. “AI is also helping to accelerate this evolution and shape the way work gets done at Visa.”
Quoting a person with knowledge of the company’s decision, Bloomberg reported that AI is not the only driver of the job cuts, with Visa keen to reinvest in “consumer payments, commercial and money-movement solutions and value-added services, which include stablecoin, cross-border and business-to-business offerings”.
According to an independent benchmarking report in February, AI has already become institutionalised at Visa, and the firm is leading the way in the technology’s application in the payments sector.
The report from benchmarking company Evident ranked Visa number one in its AI index for payments, as a result of what it described as its shift from individual AI use cases to “institutional capability”.
Mastercard came in at number two, while PayPal took third spot in the index of 12 payments companies, which documented nearly 100 use cases for AI in the payments sector.
But, according to Evident, payments firms have not detailed their return on investment from AI spend, unlike banks.
The index took into account four factors: talent, innovation, leadership and transparency. According to Evident, Visa demonstrates the clearest evidence that AI is institutionalised across its core transaction network.
“What sets Visa apart is the degree to which the company is demonstrating impact at scale over multiple years from applications of AI across its operations and network,” said Evident co-founder Alexandra Mousavizadeh at the time of the report. “It signals a shift from individual use cases to AI as an institutional capability.”
But unlike banks, Evident said no payments company has disclosed realised or projected return on investment across all AI investments. Also speaking at the time of the report, Evident’s other co-founder, Annabel Ayles, said this is “increasingly conspicuous”.
“While one in five banks now report on group-level AI returns, payments firms have yet to quantify the aggregate impact of their AI investments,” she said. “To keep justifying this expenditure, the market will sooner or later demand clearer evidence of value.”
Banks are gaining huge benefits from AI today, with Lloyds Banking Group’s Financial institutions sentiment survey for 2025 finding that 59% of surveyed firms reported AI-driven productivity gains in the past 12 months, compared with 32% in the 2024 survey.
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