Key takeaway: Consumer trust in AI-driven payments is lagging its rollout. Merchants adopting these tools should pair them with visible transparency and override options.
New research from NMI finds that 69% of consumers don’t trust artificial intelligence to process their payments securely, and 70% say it’s important they be able to review or override an artificial intelligence/AI-made decision before a purchase goes through.
The findings come from an NMI survey of 1,000 consumers, reported by Digital Transactions on August 26, 2026. The brief didn’t detail the survey’s field dates or additional methodology beyond the sample size.
The results land as more payment providers experiment with AI in checkout and fraud screening — from AI-assisted approval decisions to fully agentic purchasing. Separate research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Plaid, published the same week, found AI-based fraud detection was already a near-term budget priority for 59% of payments firms, underscoring how fast AI is moving into payment workflows even as consumer confidence lags behind.
Why it matters: A merchant rolling out AI-driven fraud screening or checkout tools without clear disclosure or an easy override risks the same trust problem the NMI data captures: nearly seven in ten consumers assume AI can’t be trusted with their payment, and most want a way to overrule it. Being upfront about what AI is deciding, and giving customers a visible off-ramp, may matter more for conversion than the AI itself.
Source: Digital Transactions