In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, the way we pay, shop, and interact with money is changing faster than ever. We sat down with Godfrey Sullivan, Visa Senior Vice President, Head of Products and Solutions for Central Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA), to discuss how innovation is reshaping global payments, what challenges lie ahead, and why Azerbaijan is emerging as one of the region’s most dynamic digital markets.
The Azerbaijani market is incredibly dynamic
In Azerbaijan, for example, 67% of the payments value and 91% of transactions are now digital
How would you describe the current global payments landscape? What trends and tendencies define it?
The global payments landscape is incredibly exciting right now, with many interesting developments taking place. Every ten years or so, there’s a breakthrough in payments. We started with physical payments – going into a store and paying in person. Then came the e-commerce revolution in the mid-1990s, followed by mobile commerce, which shifted transactions from websites to smartphones. We believe we’re now entering the next major phase, agentic commerce, where AI agents are not only used for browsing or searching but also for completing payments. Around 60% of people in our recent survey said they use AI agents to explore shopping options or find the best deals on flights. Once payments become seamlessly integrated into this process, we expect a huge boost in commercial activity. Another major trend is the rise of stablecoins. There’s tremendous buzz around them, supported by major investments; and now we’re exploring three different ways of using stablecoins. And finally, there’s the less headline-grabbing but hugely important work of digitizing payments and developing a cashless economy. In Azerbaijan, for example, 67% of the payments value and 91% of transactions are now digital.
What are the biggest challenges in payments today, and how are your latest products and services helping to address them?
I think there are two big challenges. The first is fraud. We invest heavily in the safety and security of our network. One of our key innovations is Visa Protect for Account-to-Account payments, a suite of services that uses AI-powered risk scoring to help financial institutions prevent fraud in real-time. Another crucial element of payment protection is tokenization. Instead of using a 16-digit card number, we replace it with a secure encrypted token held by merchants or issuers, ensuring safer transactions. There are now over 11 billion Visa tokens issued globally, a remarkable milestone in enhancing payment security. The second challenge is improving the e-commerce experience. Today, shopping online can still feel cumbersome, especially when you need to manually enter card details and one-time passwords. To simplify this process, we’ve introduced Click to Pay and Visa Payment Passkey. Click to Pay securely stores tokenized digital credentials, allowing users to pay with a few clicks, while Visa Payment Passkey brings stronger biometric authentication instead of SMS codes. Working together, these innovations allow customers to complete online purchases simply by entering their mobile number or email address, followed by scanning fingerprints or Face ID to confirm a transaction. This makes e-commerce more convenient and secure.
How are payment behaviours changing among younger generations, and how does Visa respond to these shifts?
Generation Z are very different from other consumer groups. Their expectations around payments are so high. They want everything to be online, instant, and secure. As enablers of the global payments ecosystem, we have to meet those expectations, which is no easy task. The first area of focus is simplicity, and Visa Payment Passkey does exactly that, no longer requiring an SMS for authentication. They also don’t want to manually enter card details every time they make a purchase, so innovations such as Click to Pay and tokenization allow them to complete transactions smoothly using just their mobile number and preferred card.
How do you see finance, payments, and commerce developing in the near future? What impact is AI having on these areas today?
At our Global Product Drop earlier this year, we unveiled Visa Intelligent Commerce, a suite of five APIs designed for integration with leading AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, and Anthropic. These APIs enable users to link their Visa card to an AI agent, authenticate it as their personal assistant, and define spending limits or permissions. Once set up, the agent can securely make purchases on their behalf. All partners granted access to our five APIs are fully vetted and approved through Visa’s partner program. Just as we have Know-Your-Customer principles, we believe it’s equally important to know your agent. So, if an AI agent uses Visa Intelligent Commerce, you can trust that it operates within Visa’s secure ecosystem. A key innovation here is giving customers the option to receive tailored, personalized offers through AI models, based on Visa transaction insights. We create anonymized profiles – without ever sharing actual transaction data. For instance, you’ll be able to tell your AI agent, “I want to go to Dubai next weekend. Book me flights.” The agent will handle it all and process your payment securely through Visa.
How do you see the Azerbaijani market, and what are the opportunities for introducing new Visa products and services here?
The Azerbaijani market is incredibly dynamic. The country is well on its path to digitization. Currently, 16 and 17 local banks support Apple Pay and Google Pay, respectively, and these services have quickly become part of everyday life. We’re also addressing areas where cash is still commonly used, for example, through our collaboration with the Baku Ring Railway, which now supports digital payments on the Baku-Sumgait route. Azerbaijan has a strong foundation for the future of digital payments, from widespread mobile and digital adoption to a forward-thinking government, and we believe agentic commerce and other innivations will be adopted here very rapidly.
