AI and security were among the top trends discussed at Money20/20

At this year's Money20/20 conference, held in Las Vegas from October 22-25, BI Intelligence identified three emerging trends that will likely dictate much of the innovation in the payments space over the next year: AI's emergence in financial services, a reinvigorated focus on payments security, and partnerships to chase the network effect. However, the number of AI-specific announcements from major players was relatively limited compared with how much of the dialogue at the conference centered on future use cases. In general, the most mature use cases of AI are on the back-end. Thanks to recent advancements in natural language processing (NLP), conversational use cases, like messaging app bots, are receiving attention from financial services providers. But they're far from the most natural applications of AI technology -- big data and analytics tools, risk and fraud prevention platforms, and regtech offerings are among many areas in financial services where AI is driving more significant returns today.