In AI Payments, the Risk Is Not the Model. It Is the Gaps Around It.

Artificial intelligence is no longer just influencing decisions in payments. It is starting to make them. And according to i2c CEO Amir Wain, most institutions are not yet built to govern the difference.

In a piece published in a PYMNTS eBook on April 24, 2026, titled "AI Runs Payments. Governance Decides What Happens Next," Wain argues that the payments industry has been asking the wrong question.

The conversation about AI risk has centred on models including their accuracy, bias, and explainability. The actual risk, Wain contends, is not the model. It is the architecture the model operates in.

For years, payment institutions built their infrastructure by stitching together different systems to solve discrete problems across credit, debit, and core banking.