How artificial intelligence could stop those awkward moments when your credit card is mistakenly declined

It's an experience many shoppers have had: You're queued in line at the store prepared to make a purchase only to have your credit card declined for no apparent reason. A perfectly legitimate charge has been flagged as fraudulent, and the result is an agitated customer and a retailer with unsold merchandise. MasterCard has now turned to artificial intelligence to better differentiate between real and mistaken fraud, hoping to tamp down on the former while allowing the latter to go through. It's the latest financial services company to see the potential for the burgeoning field of machine learning to improve security on its network and enhance the customer experience. Financial institutions have for years collected data on customers' habits and routines, and used the information to pinpoint cards that may have been compromised.