(2025) Snow falls soft on legacy rails, Paper checks stuck in the mail. We gather ‘round the dashboard glow, Watching how payments flow. AI agents take the stand, Walking in a payments wonderland. Gone are bots that only chat, These ones do—imagine that. They book, they bill, negotiate, While we sleep, they automate. Work […]The post Walking in a Payments Wonderland appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The Justice Department has reached a proposed settlement with LivCor as part of the department’s drive to halt what it alleged is a scheme among landlords to collaborate on setting rents. The U.S. and state co-plaintiffs filed a complaint against LivCor and five other landlords in January, alleging that they engaged in anticompetitive practices, […]The post DOJ Reached Settlement With LivCor Over Alleged Anticompetitive Rents appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

There was a decline in initial claims for unemployment together with an increase in insured employment last week. Observers said this combination reflected a continuation of a “no hire, no fire” labor market. During the week ended Saturday (Dec. 20), there were 214,000 initial claims, a figure that was 10,000 lower than the 224,000 […]The post Jobless Claims Decline by 10,000 Amid ‘No Hire, No Fire’ Labor Market appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

China UnionPay has launched a mobile app designed to provide one-stop digital services for foreign visitors to China. The Nihao China app offers services related to payment, transportation, daily life and cultural tourism, the company said in a Wednesday (Dec. 24) press release. “The launch of the ‘Nihao China’ app is an important innovation […]The post China UnionPay Launches Mobile App for Travelers appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Snowflake is reportedly in talks to acquire Observe for about $1 billion to expand its range of artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. A deal would add Observe’s observability tools for monitoring applications, including AI apps, to Snowflake’s product portfolio that includes database technology and AI that handles IT tickets, customer service and other workplace tasks, The […]The post Snowflake in Talks to Acquire Observe to Expand Range of AI Offerings appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

The number and value of acquisitions and initial public offerings (IPOs) in the cryptocurrency sector surged in 2025, driven by the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry. The number of acquisitions saw a year-over-year increase of 18%, reaching 267, the Financial Times reported Tuesday (Dec. 23), citing data from PitchBook. Notable deals included […]The post Crypto Acquisitions and IPOs Surged in 2025, Driven by Trump Administration Policies appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Amazon is moving quickly to contain a new threat to its eCommerce dominance as AI-powered shopping bots begin to reshape how consumers discover and buy products online. The company is blocking third-party artificial intelligence (AI) shopping tools from accessing its site even as it explores partnerships and builds its own AI-driven buying experiences, underscoring […]The post Amazon Tightens Platform Access as AI Shopping Agents Expand appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly embedding itself into the core decision-making systems of modern businesses, from pricing and marketing to supply chain management and customer targeting. As AI tools move from experimental add-ons to operational infrastructure, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are focusing on how algorithmic decision-making could reshape competition, sometimes in ways […]The post Regulators Question How Big Tech Uses AI to Shape Markets appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

By year-end, one conclusion from PYMNTS Intelligence’s The Certainty Project series is hard to miss: Uncertainty rarely arrives as a single shock. It compounds, as we saw this year, jumping from cyber risk to payment fraud to shifting trade rules. Then it shows up in the most practical places, like delayed tech rollouts, higher […]The post 2025 Turned Uncertainty From Surprise Into Strategy appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

If 2025 felt like the year the future stopped “arriving” and started showing up in production, you are not imagining it. In payments and commerce, the most important shifts rarely announce themselves with a single product launch. They surface in how executives describe their constraints, their adversaries and their non-negotiables. What follows is a guided […]The post Payments Leaders Get Candid: The Boundaries That Defined 2025 appeared first on PYMNTS.com.