When most people think of a New Years resolution, they might think about going to the gym more, taking up a new hobby, perhaps reading more books – taking on AI-wielding fraudsters is probably not on most people’s agenda.
For the biggest companies in the payments and finance fields this is exactly what is on their minds, however. Mastercard, one of the world’s biggest card issuers alongside its rival Visa, is one such stakeholder with a lot of expectations of what the new year will bring.
Turning the tables
AI has been all the rage in 2024, in both a positive and negative sense. The positives are automation of simple tasks, increasing efficiency across business models, and analysing vast tracts of data and information to detect signs of fraud and money laundering, to name a couple of examples.
The inverse is that fraudsters are increasingly leveraging AI to perpetuate their criminal activities. In countries like the UK, fraud prevention has become a focal point for regulators and the industry, with over half a billion lost to fraud in the first half of 2024 alone in the country.
Mastercard believes that AI will prove invaluable to taking on cybercrime, which is estimated to grow to US$10trn annually by 2025. AI has been crucial to how cybercriminals and fraudsters operate, but Mastercard asserts that ‘this weapon is also a tool, as companies are training AI models to predict and neutralise threats in real time’.
The company has cited its own Decision Intelligence Pro and Consumer Fraud Risk solutions as examples of how AI is being utilised to counter fraud. Like many other firms, Mastercard has been stepping up its use of AI over the past year, as its SVP of Security Solutions and Processing, Tulsi Narayan, told Payment Expert earlier this year.
“Mastercard has been harnessing AI to protect over 125 billion payment transactions every year, preventing billions of dollars from being lost to cybercriminals, and detecting fraudulent activity by confirming people are who they say they are,” she said.
“We have developed for example Identity Insights tools that leverage AI and machine learning technologies, utilising billions of identity elements and enabling comprehensive analysis and actionable insights across diverse datasets.”
Will digital ID have its day?
Aside from AI, Mastercard also expects digital ID to see a substantial boost in 2025. The concept has been the subject of a lot of discussion in 2024, and regulatory developments in 2025 are set to make the concept more of a reality.
In the UK the government is pursuing legislation around digital ID within its Smart Data Bill, part of a wider package of laws around data, technology and finance. In the EU, a framework to create a unified digital ID for EU citizens by 2030 is being implemented.
Mastercard states: “A trusted identity is the foundation of the digital economy, enabling people to interact how, where and when they want with complete confidence. Biometrics, machine learning and identity insights are already supercharging authentication throughout a customer’s journey.”
The company expects the adoption of passkeys to gain further momentum in 2025 – the firm also seems to be banking on this, having rolled out its Payment Passkey Service worldwide earlier this year.

It expects that digital ID will be applicable across health care, education and public service. It is important to note that some concerns have been raised – not by Mastercard but by other observers – about whether consumers will take well to digital ID, especially given privacy concerns.
Speaking at the Payment Expert Summit earlier this year, James Elliott, Director of Legal at LeoVegas Group, made comparisons between digital ID and digital wallets. In his view, like wallets, digital ID can eventually be accepted as the norm.
“I think once people become used to using their digital ID and their digital wallet, as the way of interacting online, it’ll become normal,” said Elliott.
“They won’t be having to hunt around their phones for a recent copy of a utility bill and I think it will become second nature, and particularly with the ability to lock all your data into a particular wallet and then say ‘okay, this is what I want this person to be able to see, that’s what I want them to be able to see’.
“It’ll become second nature to become very convenient and user-friendly for the consumer.”
Aside from AI and digital ID, Mastercard expects continuing enhancements to the checkout experience as a result of contactless payments like Tap on Phone technology and for blockchain to enhance speed, security and efficiency across the fintech landscape.
It also anticipates collaborative ecosystems to become more commonplace across payments. This will see financial institutions, corporations, governments and fintechs increasingly embed technologies.