How Visa Is Making Payments Safer and Smarter with AI - Ep. 256
Sarah Laszlo, senior director of Visa’s machine learning platform, joins the AI Podcast to discuss how AI is transforming the way the company serves its global customer base, from advancing fraud prevention to enhancing personalization. She also shares valuable insights for enterprises looking to adopt generative AI, emphasizing the importance of using open-source models and fostering strong relationships between governance and technical teams.
#245 Rajat Taneja: Visa's President of Technology Reveals Their $3.3 Billion AI Strategy
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Visa's President of Technology, Rajat Taneja, pulls back the curtain on the $3.3 billion AI transformation powering one of the world's most trusted financial networks.
In this episode, Taneja shares how Visa—a company processing over $16 trillion annually across 300 billion real-time transactions—is leveraging AI not just to stop fraud, but to redefine the future of commerce.
From deep neural networks trained on decades of transaction data to generative AI tools powering next-gen agentic systems, Visa has quietly been an AI-first company since the 1990s. Now, with 500+ petabytes of data and 2,900 open APIs, it's preparing for a future where agents, biometrics, and behavioral signals shape every interaction.
Taneja also reveals how Visa's models can mimic bank decisions in milliseconds, stop enumeration attacks, and even detect fraud based on how you type. This is AI at global scale—with zero room for error.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
How Visa's $3.3B data platform powers 24/7 AI-driven decisioning
The fraud models behind stopping $40 billion in criminal transactions
What "agentic commerce" means—and why Visa is betting big on it
How Visa uses behavioral biometrics to detect account takeovers
Why Visa rebuilt its infrastructure for the AI era—10 years ahead of the curve
The role of generative AI, biometric identity, and APIs in the next wave of payments
The future of commerce isn't just cashless—it's intelligent, autonomous, and trust-driven.
If you're curious about how AI is redefining payments, security, and digital identity at massive scale, this episode is essential viewing.
Subscribe for more deep dives into the future of AI, commerce, and innovation.
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(00:00) Introduction
(02:57) Meet Rajat Taneja, Visa's President of Technology
(04:02) Scaling AI for 300 Billion Transactions Annually
(05:27) The Models Behind Visa's Fraud Detection
(08:02) Visa's In-House AI Models vs Open-Source Tools
(10:54) Inside Visa's $3.3B AI Data Platform
(12:29) Visa's Role in E-Commerce Innovation
(16:24) Biometrics, Identity & Tokenization at Visa
(21:14) Visa's Vision for AI-Driven Commerce
93 - Crypto Payments and the DeFi Mullet | Visa's Cuy Sheffield and Anchorage's Diogo Mónica
The DeFi Mullet is a classic Bankless thesis that we've begun to watch play out right in front of us. This week, we bring on Cuy Sheffield from Visa and Diogo Mónica from Anchorage to explain the DeFi mullet from the Fintech side of things.
This episode explores how crypto payments are extending beyond retail and into institutions, and how Fintech platforms like Visa are leveling up with the utilities provided by Anchorage to support crypto. Blurring the lines between the two worlds is shaping up to be a fascinating corner of our industry, and there's a ton of new concepts to dive into throughout this conversation.
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------ Topics Covered:
0:00 Intro 6:30 Visa & The DeFi Mullet 15:03 Anchorage & The DeFi Mullet 18:55 Volatility & Engagement 25:52 Crypto Rewards 34:13 How Payments Work 41:08 Settlement Layers 46:22 What Anchorage Does 50:30 Stablecoins & Bridging 1:00:09 Teaching Visa About Crypto 1:06:10 Immutable Transactions 1:13:22 Visa CryptoPunk 1:22:09 Central Bank Digital Currencies 1:28:04 Trusting Institutions? 1:31:52 Closing & Disclaimers
----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures
Visa Is Building Infrastructure for NFTs, Smart Contracts, and L2s. Why? - Ep.280
Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, discusses Visa’s crypto game plan, stablecoin regulation, NFTs, and more. Show highlights:
Cuy’s background and his journey down the crypto rabbit hole
how Visa and cryptocurrency can coexist
why crypto companies and fintech companies are similar
what Visa is trying to solve for consumers regarding cryptocurrencies
how cross-chain payment infrastructure would work
why Visa requires enhanced diligence for crypto companies
what countries can learn from stablecoins when building CBDCs
why Visa is creating a universal payment channel for CBDCs and other cryptocurrencies
why Visa chose USDC to begin making payments with
the two main reasons why stablecoins are used (hint: it’s not for buying cups of coffee)
how cryptocurrency is changing financial education and inclusion
how crypto’s open-source ethos is helping underserved and emerging markets build financial infrastructure
why NFTs are Cuy’s favorite topic
how NFTs level the playing field for black artists (and artists in general)
why Visa purchased a CryptoPunk and how other businesses could leverage NFTs
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Nodle: https://bit.ly/3AXGydJ
Cuy Sheffield
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cuysheffield
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cuy-sheffield-72082126/
NFT collection: https://tryshowtime.com/csheffield
Content:
Medium
https://medium.com/@cuysheffield
Tweets
Thoughts on payroll deposits
https://twitter.com/cuysheffield/status/1442571326447767554
DAOs as chaotic organizations
https://twitter.com/cuysheffield/status/1441536551016534019
Visa Crypto Plays
CryptoPunk purchase
https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2021/08/18/nfts-mark-a-1629328216374.html
First smart contract on Ropsten
https://ropsten.etherscan.io/address/0xadb1f7e78a3ac3d0a006961f95d96bbb0ec14326#code
NFT research report
https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/Solutions/documents/visa-nft-whitepaper.pdf
Cross-chain Interoperability
https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/blog/bdp/2021/09/29/making-digital-currency-1632954547520.html
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2109.12194v2.pdf
Visa + USDC
https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.releaseId.17821.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninabambysheva/2021/03/29/visa-to-start-settling-transactions-with-bitcoin-partners-in-usdc/
Digital currency whitepaper
https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/Solutions/documents/visa-digital-currency-overview.pdf
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a16z Podcast: The Oral History Of TrialPay — Obstacles and Opportunities in Payments
In this hallway-style conversation (originally recorded as a video), a16z general partner Alex Rampell and Terry Angelos, SVP of Commerce Solutions at Visa, discuss the trials and tribulations of their time as co-founders of TrialPay, an e-commerce payment and promotions platform. The story begins with their serendipitous initial meeting twelve years ago; tracks the obstacles overcome, rise, and eventual acquisition of TrialPay (by Visa in 2015); and ends with reflections on the future landscape and potential of payments. How can a third party increase profits for all parties involved? And how can a payments startup make a splash in an industry dominated by a few well-known incumbents?
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
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