US, UK Payments Firms Embrace AI Amid Infrastructure Gaps
A sweeping new industry report exposes a critical fault line in the payments sector: firms on both sides of the Atlantic are aggressively deploying artificial intelligence while leaving the broken back-office infrastructure underneath it completely untouched.
AutoRek’s Future of Payments Operations 2026 report, drawn from 250 interviews with senior finance sector managers across the UK and the US, puts a name to the problem, “The Great Payments Paradox.” While 96% of firms are now adopting AI in some form, 69% still cite manual processes and limited automation as their biggest constraint to scaling. The numbers tell the story of an industry sprinting on a cracked foundation.
Data fragmentation is a core part of the crisis. Eighty percent of organizations say disconnected data is actively disrupting their operations, yet investment continues to pour into front-end AI tools rather than the underlying data systems that would make those tools actually work.
The paradox of payments firms deploying AI without modernizing financial infrastructure is not just an operational headache. It is a strategic gamble with real consequences. “AI doesn’t fix broken data. It amplifies whatever foundation it’s built on,” said Jim Sadler, Chief Product, Technology and Operations Officer at AutoRek. “Without clean, reconciled data, front-end AI investments cannot deliver reliable outcomes.”
The concern is particularly sharp around agentic AI, the emerging class of autonomous AI systems capable of executing transactions and workflows independently. Firms racing to deploy agents on top of existing infrastructure are, in many cases, racing to amplify the problems already embedded in that infrastructure. In finance, errors at speed and at scale are not easy to unwind.
Regulatory pressure is adding another layer of urgency. With safeguarding deadlines approaching, only 33% of firms say they are fully prepared for upcoming compliance requirements, while 84% expect their controls will require updates within the next 12 months. The expectation from regulators has shifted, they now want real-time control, not the annual reviews that many firms still rely on.
Looking further ahead, organizations expect that by 2030, roughly 24% of payment volume will run on blockchain-based networks, a shift that will demand far more rigorous infrastructure than what currently exists across the sector.
Nick Botha, VP of Payments and Retail Banking at AutoRek, was direct about what the findings mean for the industry’s near-term future: “The payments industry is not short on ambition and innovation; it is short on operational alignment. 2026 will determine whether firms can close the gap between real-time strategy and manual reality, separating market leaders from those left behind.”
The message from this research is unambiguous. Payments firms deploying AI without modernizing financial infrastructure are not innovating, they are building faster on unstable ground. The firms that take the less glamorous path of fixing their data foundations now are the ones that will still be standing when the dust settles.
