Today In Payments: Citi Partners With Mastercard For Google Pay Plex Accounts; PayPal Boosts Xoom’s Money Transfer Capabilities

Today in Payments

In today’s top news, Citi partners with Mastercard to power its Google Pay Plex accounts, and PayPal upgraded Xoom’s money transfer services. Plus, the CFO of Walgreens doesn’t feel threatened by Amazon’s foray into the pharmacy industry.

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    Citi Partners With Mastercard For Google Pay Plex Accounts

    Citi and Mastercard are teaming up as network partners for the digital checking and savings account Citi Plex on Google Pay, available for both Android and iOS. Citi Plex account holders will receive a digital debit Mastercard, and, upon request, can opt for a contactless-enabled, physical debit Mastercard with access to 60,000-plus fee-free ATMs.

    PayPal Boosts Xoom’s Money Transfer Capabilities In US

    PayPal on Thursday (Nov. 19) unveiled a major upgrade to Xoom, enabling customers across the United States to use the mobile payments app to send money straight to the bank account of a family member, friend or another recipient.

    Walgreens CFO Unfazed By Amazon’s Pharmacy Entry

    Walgreens Chief Financial Officer James Kehoe said he doesn’t think Amazon’s push into the online pharmacy world is cause for concern. He reminded attendees at the Wolfe Healthcare Conference on Thursday (Nov. 19) that most people remain fiercely loyal to physical drugstores for their pharmaceutical needs.

    Affirm’s IPO Filing Shows Narrowing Losses, Surging GMV

    Affirm has become just one of several FinTechs and platform companies to file for an initial public offering (IPO), revealing in an S-1 SEC filing that gross merchandise values (GMVs) are surging, while losses are narrowing.

    New Data: Banks Could Lose 20 Percent Of Customers Over Rewards

    Rewards programs are no longer a perk for banks but a necessity, with more than 20 percent of U.S. consumers willing to switch financial institutions (FIs) to access the reward options they seek. In the Cardholder Loyalty Engagement Report, PYMNTS surveys 2,115 U.S. consumers to find out how FIs can tap the demand for rewards programs to boost engagement, retain customers and attract new cardholders.

    Chipotle Personalizes Loyalty Program, Digital Ordering Experience

    No two customers are alike, and the restaurant loyalty programs and digital ordering options they receive shouldn’t be either, Nicole West, vice president of digital strategy and product management for Chipotle, tells PYMNTS. She explains how personalizing rewards initiatives and ordering experiences can help quick-service restaurants (QSRs) satisfy individual customer needs.

    Google, Mobile Wallets Pave Roadmap To Super Apps

    The pandemic has spurred increasing adoption of mobile wallets, where contactless convenience and safety are prized. That opens the door for more merchants to offer that payment option — and paves the way for the rise of the super app.


    US Military Expands AI Investment With $800 Million in Contracts

    Highlights

    The Pentagon awarded contracts worth up to $200 million each to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI to accelerate AI adoption.

    The Department of Defense is pursuing agentic AI systems to enhance battlefield planning, decision-making and readiness.

    While AI offers advantages, experts warn of escalation risks and call for safeguards in military use.

    The Pentagon recently awarded up to $200 million each to four U.S.-based artificial intelligence (AI) companies developing “frontier” models: Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI. The contracts are the latest sign of AI adoption across the U.S. military.

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      The Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) said its goal was to accelerate the Department of Defense’s (DoD) adoption of agentic AI capabilities to “address national security challenges.”

      CDAO head Doug Matty said the Defense Department wished to tap into the best technologies developed by U.S. AI companies to support its troops and maintain a strategic advantage.

      The U.S. military is no slouch when it comes to technological innovation. For example, the DoD’s R&D armDefense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPAcreated Arpanet in 1969, a communications network that linked computers far apart. Arpanet later became the internet.

      DARPA has contributed to the field of AI over the decades, backing everything from expert systems to autonomous vehicles. In 2023, it developed an AI system that autonomously piloted an F-16 and engaged in dogfighting scenarios with a human-piloted F-16. A year earlier, it debuted a Black Hawk helicopter piloted only by an AI system.

      Commercially, enterprises are developing AI-powered products to sell to the military, including autonomous or semi-autonomous drones, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, targeting systems, signal intelligence, flight control and decision systems and the like.

      AI is already being used across the military. Last month, the U.S. Air Force completed “Experiment 3,” which tested the pairing of human and AI systems to speed up responses to threats known as the “kill chain.”

      One of the tools tested was the Maven Smart System, which used AI to give real-time suggestions to military teams about possible targets and actions. Humans still made the final call. The goal was to see if AI could enhance human decision-making — not to replace the people.

      In March, the DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit kicked off “Thunderforge,” an AI-driven military planning effort co-developed with Google and Microsoft. The AI system integrates intelligence streams and battlefield sensor data to generate operational recommendations with humans in control.

      Read more: PYMNTS Intelligence: Finding the Way to Better Government Disbursements

      Risk Worth Embracing?

      The military’s embrace of AI signals a realization that 21st century warfare is changing and the U.S. military must modernize to keep up.

      “The U.S. ability to deter war in regions of critical interest is fading,” wrote Carol Kuntz, adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a June 2025 report titled “Artificial Intelligence and War.”

      “Adversaries — particularly China — have improved their own capabilities and could now threaten classic U.S. power projection.

      “AI-enabled military capabilities, particularly sensor and firing networks, combined with other force and program improvements, would be among the most promising strategies for shoring up deterrence and defense capabilities in the near- and mid-term,” Kuntz wrote.

      But alongside the realization about the necessity of AI for warfare is a concern that these systems could make mistakes in judgment.

      “If AI is to be used in war, decisions in the command center or the Situation Room would need to rely on predictions about the effects of the use of algorithms, particularly in sensitive applications,” Kuntz said. “Absent such predictive tools, AI-enabled military capabilities could not be responsibly authorized in uses such as a sensor and firing network.”

      According to a 2024 Stanford and Georgia Tech paper that tested five language models in military and diplomatic decision-making, researchers found that all models took actions that escalated the fight.

      “We observe that models tend to develop arms-race dynamics, leading to greater conflict, and in rare cases, even to the deployment of nuclear weapons,” the authors wrote.

      The models justified their actions by saying they wanted to deter enemy actions by taking the first strike, according to the paper.

      Nonetheless, AI model developers are forging ahead to sell their technology to the military. They have created dedicated business units to cater to the needs of the military and U.S. government. There’s Microsoft’s Azure for U.S. Government, Google for Government, Amazon’s AWS GovCloud, OpenAI for Government, xAI’s Grok for Government, Anthropic’s Claude Gov, among others.

      In the end, despite AI’s inherent risks when deployed in warfare, the U.S. may not have a choice but to embrace the technology, especially since adversaries are not standing still.

      “The United States is confronting the rise of a peer competitor, as well as a host of other military dangers and problems,” Kuntz said. “China fields precision guided munitions, hypersonic missiles and fighter aircraft increasingly able to pierce U.S. air superiority, capabilities that pose risks to classic U.S. power projection forces.”

      “There is a reasonable basis to believe that AI-enabled military capabilities could help rectify many deficiencies in U.S. combat power,” she added.

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