Applicant name: PMI Americas
Applicant type: Private Company
Headquarter City: Mexico City
Headquarter Country: Mexico
Innovation Name: AI Payments
Innovation Type: Service
Category: Remittance Evolution
Status of Innovation: Pilot
Innovation Active Since: 03/01/2023
Innovation Description: We developed a technology that is 100% based on AI. This new tech is a revolutionary method of maximizing profit for our company and yet, minimizing cost to the end user. It consists of atomizing a transaction, and letting our AI pick the best route. In summary, our platform receives an order from an individual user or a business, who needs to send money from Mexico to Colombia for instance; our system will analyze in microseconds, which payment route (rails) will maximize our revenue and still be the most competitive option for the beneficiary. How this is done: We start by having not just one, but dozens of local payment partners or methods, and when a quote for local payment is initiated our AI will analyze all the possible combinations of getting those funds into the beneficiaries hands. No matter if the beneficiary selects a bank or cash payment, we have several ways to move those funds, thur different partnerships. Some could be corresponding bank, a local fintech partnership, a stablecoin liquidity provider (Stellar), Visa Direct, a wallet, etc. Our “AI Payment” software will quickly analyze all these options in real-time and always provide the best option for the beneficiary while maximizing our profit.
What has been a strategy you implement to be ahead of the market? The strategy has been to implement AI technology into payments. AI tech can analyze billions of data in seconds, and if these data points are dynamic, such as FX spread, fees, etc, then we can teach our system to always look to maximize profit while at the same time offering the best possible option to out beneficiary.
What has been your competitive advantage in adapting so quickly to market change? We decided to invest early in AI technology for payments
What has been the biggest change that was essential for your evolution? Two significant changes allowed for our AI Payments to become a reality.
  1. Advances in AI technology in general. Data analyzes, data compression for storage, and data processing time has come a long way. Today we can store and analyze more data faster than ever before
  2. The availability of new payers in local markets. A few years ago, a money transfer operator would only have one or two local payment partnerships. With fintechs, neobanks, stablecoins, and better technology, a MTO can find a handful or more local payment options in every country.
What was the inspiration for this innovation? Our goal was to leverage the innovation is AI technology globally and apply it to our payment model. We wanted to create an almost fully automated, intelligent payment software that could make the best decision for profit and user experience based on data points, trends, and best course of action.
Who can benefit from your innovation most? The real winners are both our company for maximizing profits, and the user themselves, as our goal remains to find the user the best price for their payment, while finding the most profitable combination for our service.
What are you most proud of about your innovation? Most MTOs and financial institutions have to manually input FX price spread, fees, and will have a few corresponding local partners. This is mainly why remittance prices have been so high for years. If we can use AI technology to maximize our profits while keeping the total price for users as low as possible, we can really start to change the remittance industry for the benefit of the user. AI technology today is revolutionizing so many other industries, such as insurance, lending, advertising, travel, and so many more. It is time to apply this super tech to payments and let AI show us the best path for profitability.
Why do you think you should win this category? Because this is a true innovative solution that is part of the evolution of remittance and the new frontier of digital payments.

TEAM MEMBERS

Full Name: Alex Pereira
Role: CEO
Full Name: Isaac Gavino
Role: CTO