Las Vegas hosted more than 11,000 financial industry professionals from 85 countries at Money 20/20 this October. Still, this year’s conference revealed something different from previous editions — a shift from innovation theater to enterprise-scale execution.

The event’s main focus wasn’t on questions like “What can AI do?” or “Will crypto work?”. Instead, executives and product leaders turned to more practical issues: how to implement AI using real customer data, how to move stablecoins beyond pilots into full production, and how to define trust when autonomous agents manage money on our behalf.

AI: From Pilots To Day-Two Rigor

Artificial intelligence dominated nearly every panel, booth, and hallway conversation, but with a level of sophistication that marked a clear departure from previous years’ speculation.

Sumee Seetharaman, Head of AI/ML at TD Bank, introduced the concept of “Day Two Rigor” — the ongoing discipline of maintenance, monitoring, and retraining required after AI deployment. Models degrade quickly as customer behavior changes, so this isn’t a one-time project; it’s about operating an AI system as a living organism.

The most compelling framework came from NVIDIA, Stripe, TD Bank, and Fiserv: the AI Factory model. It operates across three layers — a Data Layer that captures proprietary customer insights across all touchpoints (the most defensible asset), an Inference Layer of foundation models designed for scale, and an Application Layer of specialized AI agents. The key insight is that generic models trained on public datasets cannot match the performance of models built on proprietary customer data.

Greg Ulrich, Mastercard’s Chief AI and Data Officer, captured the moment: “Agentic commerce is permeating every conversation. Our customers are asking how we’re moving beyond pilots.” He wasn’t exaggerating — the breadth of AI discussion was unprecedented.

Yet pragmatism tempered the enthusiasm. Mike Krieger, Anthropic’s Chief Product Officer, acknowledged the AI bubble: “For sure, it’s an unprecedented bubble of dealmaking, and some startups won’t make it. The math has to math.” Companies must deploy AI to drive revenue, not just efficiency.

Robin Vince, CEO of BNY Mellon, emphasized that AI maturity isn’t about computing power but organizational culture. BNY’s internal platform, Eliza, achieved over 39% employee adoption, creating what Vince called a “flywheel of excitement,” where curiosity drives experimentation, and experimentation fuels cascading adoption.

Agentic Commerce and The Trust Question

As autonomous agents gain the ability to make payments, negotiate contracts, and manage investments, the notion of trust is being redefined. Industry leaders discussed the shift from Know Your Customer to Know Your Agent — frameworks that validate not only who the customer is but also whether the agent acting on their behalf is legitimate and authorized.

Ronak Daya, Head of Product at Paxos, linked this to blockchain and stablecoin infrastructure, which could provide the verification and transparency needed for large-scale autonomous transactions. The underlying idea — that crypto and tokenized money can become the foundation of digital trust — echoed throughout the conference.

Stablecoins Leave the Lab

Perhaps the most striking shift at Money 20/20 was stablecoins’ transition from speculative asset to operational infrastructure.

According to FXC Intelligence, 72% of the 25 largest cross-border payment companies mentioned stablecoins in Q2 2025 earnings calls — up from 16% in Q1 and virtually zero before this year. It’s one of the fastest adoption curves in fintech history.

Western Union’s CEO made a surprise appearance to announce the company’s own stablecoin, the U.S. Dollar Payment Token, set to launch in the first half of 2026 on the Solana blockchain. This wasn’t a startup — it was more than 150 years of institutional payments infrastructure betting on blockchain rails.

Stablecoins now represent roughly 4% of the market and function as natural rails for instant settlement and cross-border payments with lower costs and greater predictability. Circle announced its public testnet for Arc, a Layer-1 blockchain designed for payments. Uphold and Exodus demonstrated that the path to mainstream crypto adoption runs through “compliance first, UX first,” building infrastructure with integrated controls and licenses.

Open Finance as the Invisible Infrastructure

Open Finance emerged as the connective tissue binding together AI, payments, and data — yet most people can’t see it.

Google Pay’s integration of Pix payments in Brazil required participation in Open Finance. Nubank credits Open Finance as foundational to its business model transformation. With more than 15 million customers sharing external data, Nubank generated AI-powered insights that reduced the average time in overdraft by three days and identified unnecessary fees for over two million customers.

Gustavo Bresler, founder of Iniciador, captured the paradigm shift: “Custody of funds used to be the advantage. Now, whoever controls the channel — the interface the customer uses — makes the rules.” New financial interfaces on WhatsApp orchestrate funds across multiple accounts, exemplifying this shift.

The lesson is that Open Finance isn’t a product but an invisible infrastructure that reshapes where value flows and who captures it.

The Experience Revolution

Sarah Stapp, Chief Commercial Officer at Aeropay, defined the new standard simply: “Couch payments.” If you can’t make a payment from your couch, it’s not good enough.

Mastercard’s Seema Chibber emphasized that frictionless payment experiences must be built on privacy, trust, and transparency. Apple’s Jennifer Bailey revealed that the company is expanding Apple Wallet beyond payments to include house keys, hotel access, car entry, and digital identification. “Identity will be a long-term journey for us,” she noted. When financial infrastructure becomes invisible, the user experience becomes intuitive, secure, and accessible.

From Hype to Execution

This year’s Money 20/20 marked a moment of maturity for the global fintech ecosystem. Grand promises or experimental showcases will not define the future of finance; it will be shaped by infrastructure that quietly delivers — reliable, interoperable, and invisible to the end user.

At Luby, we believe the next era of finance belongs to those who can balance innovation with execution. We combine software engineering, artificial intelligence, and automation to help financial institutions modernize legacy systems, accelerate digital launches, and scale with security and governance.

Talk to our experts and explore how to turn the lessons from Money 20/20 into the next chapter of your financial transformation.