Earnings from Porch Group and Lemonade show artificial intelligence (AI) moving into core insurance functions, with measurable effects on claims handling, underwriting and distribution.
The post Lemonade and Porch Show AI Is Rewriting Insurance Math appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Earnings from Porch Group and Lemonade show artificial intelligence (AI) moving into core insurance functions, with measurable effects on claims handling, underwriting and distribution.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAs detailed in results this past week, Lemonade provides one of the clearest examples of AI applied to claims and servicing. In its shareholder letter, and in reference to loss adjustment expense, the company states that \u201cAI-powered automation drives LAE ratios of ~4%,\u201d pointing to materially lower claims handling costs than traditional models. Management noted its automation now covers \u201cmost support and claims interactions,\u201d which has implications for both speed and consistency of payouts.\nPYMNTS Intelligence in collaboration with Ingo Payments finds that delays in claims payouts continue to affect retention and satisfaction when it comes to insurance, and in our data, 38% of auto insurance customers are in the lowest satisfaction segment when payments lag. The same research emphasizes that speed in disbursements is now tied directly to trust and loyalty. That pressure is pushing insurers to automate processes that were historically manual.\nOperating leverage tied to AI is also visible in staffing metrics. Lemonade reports that in-force premium per employee exceeds $1 million, reflecting the ability to scale premium volume without a proportional increase in headcount. Management attributes that to \u201cdeeply embedding LLMs within our proprietary technology stack,\u201d which has expanded capacity while reducing team size over time.\nRevenue rose 71% year over year to $258 million, while gross profit increased 159% to roughly $100 million.\nPorch Group frames AI in similar operational terms. Management stated during the conference call with analysts that AI is producing \u201creal productivity gains,\u201d as discussed by COO Matthew Neagle across engineering, customer support and fraud monitoring. Those gains are reflected in margin performance, with insurance services generating an 85% gross margins.\nAI in Distribution and Customer Acquisition\nAI is also being applied to marketing efficiency and customer acquisition.\nLemonade highlights its \u201cAI-powered growth engine and proprietary LTV model,\u201d which enables real-time optimization of targeting and capital allocation. CEO Daniel Schreiber reinforced that point on the earnings call, stating that marketing spend has grown, but the loan to value/customer acquisition cost ratios are healthy.\nCustomer growth figures support that claim. Lemonade added 158,000 customers in the quarter, bringing total customers to more than 3.1 million, up 23% year over year. In-force premium reached $1.3 billion, up 32%, while premium per customer increased 7% to $424. Porch Group\u2019s earnings materials detail that insurance services saw 50% revenue growth as measured year over year during the most recent quarter.\nCross-selling, enabled in part by data and targeting models, is contributing to that expansion. About 18% of total premium is bundled, and existing customers generated roughly $85 million of pet insurance premium. Conversion rates have nearly doubled, according to management, indicating that pricing and targeting improvements are translating into policy issuance.\nThese figures show that AI is influencing not only how policies are serviced but also how customers are identified and converted.\nUnderwriting remains the area where AI has the most direct impact on profitability.\nLemonade reports that \u201cover 90% of our customers have continuous telemetry on,\u201d allowing the company to adjust pricing based on real-time data.\nThe results are visible in underwriting metrics. Lemonade and Porch both reported improving gross loss ratios, as measured year over year. The earnings results show that AI is embedded across multiple parts of the insurance value chain, tied to claims handling, customer acquisition and underwriting.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Lemonade and Porch Show AI Is Rewriting Insurance Math appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-05-01T13:15:45-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-01T21:00:45-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Lemonade-Porch-earnings-Insurance.jpeg", "tags": [ "AI", "Insurance", "Lemonade", "News", "Porch", "PYMNTS News", "Earnings" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3698703", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/ares-raises-record-30-billion-despite-private-credit-valuation-slump/", "title": "Ares Raises Record $30 Billion Despite Private Credit Valuation Slump", "content_html": "Global alternative investment manager Ares Management raised $30 billion in the first quarter, a figure that was up more than 45% year over year and marked a first-quarter record for the company.
The post Ares Raises Record $30 Billion Despite Private Credit Valuation Slump appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Global alternative investment manager Ares Management raised $30 billion in the first quarter, a figure that was up more than 45% year over year and marked a first-quarter record for the company.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\n\u201cWe are on track for another record year of fundraising as we continue to see broad-based investor demand across our platform,\u201d Ares CEO Michael Arougheti said in a Friday (May 1) press release. \u201cWe also continue to see strong fundamental performance across our investment portfolios despite the volatile market environment.\u201d\nAres offers investment solutions across the credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes, according to the release. As of March 31, it had $644 billion of assets under management.\n\u201cSupported by our expanding global platform, a record investment pipeline and nearly $160 billion of available capital, we are well positioned to invest our capital opportunistically and meet our financial objectives for the year,\u201d Ares Chief Financial Officer Jarrod Phillips said in the release.\nReuters reported Friday that Ares is one of the biggest names in private credit and that the company\u2019s announcement signaled that investor appetite for the asset class remains strong at a time when the private credit sector has seen months of negative headlines.\nThe report said that the number of direct institutional clients in Ares\u2019 investor base leapt by about 50% between 2022 and 2025 and that this category of investors tends to be more predictable than retail ones during volatile periods.\nBloomberg reported Friday that as of Thursday (April 30), Ares\u2019 shares had dropped 27% this year amid greater scrutiny of private credit valuations due to investor concerns over the sector\u2019s lending standards and its exposure to the software sector.\nIt was reported Thursday (April 28) that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said that there is a possibility of a worse-than-anticipated credit market downturn and that the possibility is even greater in the private credit space, where the sheer number of companies means not all of them will do well if the market falls.\nOn April 15, it was reported that the Treasury Department has been holding one-on-one meetings with private credit leaders for months and began asking for written responses to its requests for data. Through these efforts, Treasury is seeking information about private credit firms\u2019 business models and their ties to the regulated financial system.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Ares Raises Record $30 Billion Despite Private Credit Valuation Slump appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-05-01T11:28:26-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-05-01T11:28:26-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Ares-private-credit.png", "tags": [ "Ares Management", "Earnings", "Investments", "News", "private credit", "PYMNTS News", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3697153", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/wayfair-deploys-ai-and-influencers-to-beat-furniture-slump/", "title": "Wayfair Deploys AI and Influencers to Beat Furniture Slump", "content_html": "Artificial intelligence (AI) and influencers helped\u00a0Wayfair\u00a0outperform the home furnishings category during the first quarter,\u00a0Niraj Shah, the company\u2019s CEO, co-founder and co-chairman said during a Thursday (April 30) earnings call.
The post Wayfair Deploys AI and Influencers to Beat Furniture Slump appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Artificial intelligence (AI) and influencers helped\u00a0Wayfair\u00a0outperform the home furnishings category during the first quarter,\u00a0Niraj Shah, the company\u2019s CEO, co-founder and co-chairman said during a Thursday (April 30) earnings call.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nThe home furnishings category was buffeted by weather disruptions early in the first quarter and a pullback in consumer spending due to rising energy and fuel prices later in the quarter, Shah said.\nThose pressures led to the category being down in the low-single-digit range for the quarter, but Wayfair outperformed the market by a high-single-digit spread, he said.\nAccording to a Thursday\u00a0earnings release, Wayfair\u2019s revenue was up 7.4% year over year, reaching\u00a0$2.9 billion\u00a0in the first quarter.\n\u201cWe take confidence in knowing that whichever direction the macro turns, Wayfair will be a key share winner because our scale gives us the ability to build a customer experience that cannot be matched,\u201d Shah said during the call.\nWayfair\u2019s scale advantage in technology includes the ability to develop solutions that can be used in all the company\u2019s geographic markets and continuously improve\u00a0the customer\u00a0experience.\n\u201cNowhere is this more evident than in our rapid deployment of generative and agentic AI,\u201d Shah said. \u201cWe\u2019re not just experimenting with AI; we\u2019re actively using it to widen our competitive moat.\u201d\nFor example, Wayfair is using AI to translate its catalog into French for its customers in Quebec, and to autonomously enrich and correct product attribute details across its catalogs for customers in the United States and the United Kingdom.\n\u201cThis kind of technological leverage allows us to use resources more efficiently while simultaneously delivering a richer and more intuitive shopping experience,\u201d Shah said.\nWhen it comes to marketing, Wayfair is now applying the marketing mix it uses in the U.S. to Canada and the U.K. That mix includes a greater share of marketing on platforms such as TikTok, connected TV and streaming audio rather than traditional channels.\nIn Canada, the company scaled its creator program from zero to more than 1,000 creators over the past year and gained tens of millions of views. This approach helps Wayfair adapt to local market trends.\n\u201cWe can speak to and resonate directly with the consumer looking for inspiration for her home in the suburbs of London or the heart of Toronto,\u201d Shah said.\nThe company also expanded its\u00a0Wayfair Rewards\u00a0loyalty program to Canada and the U.K. within the past few weeks and is already seeing rewards shoppers return more frequently.\n\u201cIn the home category, a customer may only make a purchase a few times a year,\u201d Shah said. \u201cOur aim is to ensure that every time they think about their home, they think of Wayfair.\u201d\n\r\n\r\nThe post Wayfair Deploys AI and Influencers to Beat Furniture Slump appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-30T18:35:55-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T18:35:55-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Wayfair.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "Earnings", "ecommerce", "News", "PYMNTS News", "social commerce", "Wayfair", "What's Hot" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3696059", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/mastercard-sees-agentic-commerce-growth-despite-travel-headwinds/", "title": "Mastercard Sees Agentic Commerce Growth Despite Travel Headwinds", "content_html": "Mastercard\u2019s latest quarter reads less like a report on payments volume and more like a blueprint for how commerce may be conducted when software begins to transact on behalf of people.
The post Mastercard Sees Agentic Commerce Growth Despite Travel Headwinds appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Mastercard\u2019s latest quarter reads less like a report on payments volume and more like a blueprint for how commerce may be conducted when software begins to transact on behalf of people.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nChief Executive Michael Miebach used the earnings call on Thursday (April 30) to place artificial intelligence (AI), agent-driven transactions and virtualized credentials at the center of the company\u2019s strategy, arguing that the network\u2019s future lies in enabling machines to initiate and complete payments securely.\n\u201cOur payment solutions are ready, and we are engaged shaping what comes next with key players, including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and other partners across the ecosystem,\u201d he said on the conference call with analysts, adding that \u201cnearly all Mastercards around the world are now enabled for Mastercard Agent Pay.\u201d\nMastercard is already embedding what it calls \u201cVerifiable Intent,\u201d a record of what a consumer authorized when an AI agent acts, and linking those permissions to tokenized credentials. The objective is to make agent-initiated payments resemble traditional card transactions in their protections, even as the initiating party shifts from a person to software.\nConsumers Spend, But Travel Softens\nThe backdrop for those ambitions remains a consumer that continues to spend, even as certain corridors show strain. Miebach described \u201chealthy underlying consumer and business spending,\u201d while acknowledging that geopolitical tensions are weighing on travel flows.\nThat tension is visible in the company\u2019s cross-border data. Volumes rose at a double-digit pace overall, supported by both travel and non-travel activity, though the latter has proven more resilient.\nThe network\u2019s scale still provides insulation. Mastercard cited billions of cards in circulation and continued growth in transaction counts, with contactless penetration approaching four out of five in-person transactions.\nMiebach framed the opportunity in practical terms. \u201cWe believe that tokenized money will occupy a meaningful part of the money movement in the future,\u201d he said, pointing to use cases such as cross-border B2B payments, remittances and wallet funding.\nThe company is not positioning stablecoins as a replacement for cards, but as an additional layer that can be routed through existing infrastructure. The emphasis is on interoperability and compliance, areas where BVNK\u2019s technology is intended to provide an advantage.\nVirtual Cards and Commercial Flows\nThat orchestration extends to commercial payments, where virtual cards continue to gain traction, particularly in travel and B2B flows. Mastercard highlighted new partnerships with online travel agencies and corporate platforms during the call.\nChief Financial Officer Sachin Mehra noted that net revenue was up 12%, \u201creflecting continued growth in our payment network and our value-added services and solutions,\u201d while operating income also advanced. In the U.S., gross dollar volume (GDV) increased by 4%, with credit growth of 8% and debit growth of 1%.\nCross-border assessments and transaction processing revenues also expanded, aided by pricing and mix, even as foreign exchange volatility and geopolitical events introduced variability.\nInvestors sent the shares 3% lower in early trading on Thursday.\nMastercard expects growth to remain in the low double-digit range, with the second quarter shaped in part by assumptions that current geopolitical disruptions will ease.\nMehra struck a measured tone, noting that the company is \u201coperating in a period of heightened uncertainty,\u201d even as underlying spending trends remain supportive. The near-term results still depend on consumer behavior and cross-border flows. The longer-term bet is that the definition of a transaction is about to expand.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Mastercard Sees Agentic Commerce Growth Despite Travel Headwinds appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-30T13:08:10-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T13:08:10-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Mastercard-earnings-credit.jpg", "tags": [ "agentic commerce", "Earnings", "Mastercard", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Travel Payments" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3693648", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/alphabet-is-rebuilding-search-as-a-transaction-engine/", "title": "Alphabet Is Rebuilding Search as a Transaction Engine", "content_html": "A search query that once returned links is now beginning to complete transactions, and Alphabet\u2019s latest results show how quickly that shift is moving from experiment to operating model.
The post Alphabet Is Rebuilding Search as a Transaction Engine appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "A search query that once returned links is now beginning to complete transactions, and Alphabet\u2019s latest results show how quickly that shift is moving from experiment to operating model.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nAfter the company reported earnings on Wednesday (April 29), CEO Sundar Pichai made clear that the company is building toward a version of Search where AI executes task.\n\u201cBringing agentic flows, workflows to consumers in a way that it\u2019s easy for them to do, including in the context of search\u2014I see as a huge opportunity ahead,\u201d he said.\nThat direction is already visible in the numbers. Alphabet reported revenue of $109.9 billion, up 22% year over year, extending a run of double-digit growth to eleven consecutive quarters. Search revenue rose 19%, while Google Cloud increased 63%, reflecting demand tied directly to AI workloads and enterprise adoption.\nCheckout Moves Into Search\nThe strategic shift is clearest in how Alphabet is rebuilding the shopping journey. Within AI Mode and the Gemini app, users can now move from product discovery to purchase without leaving the interface.\nExecutives on the analyst call Wednesday described this as a redesign of commerce infrastructure. The Universal Commerce Protocol is being used to connect merchants, platforms and payment flows, enabling AI systems to manage the sequence from recommendation through checkout.\nAI-driven Search queries are at an all-time high, and more than 30% of search ad spend now uses AI-enabled campaign tools, reflecting how advertisers are adjusting to conversational and context-rich queries.\nPhilipp Schindler, Alphabet\u2019s chief business officer, pointed to the way AI is changing both consumer behavior and monetization inside Search, as query volume rises and prompts become more conversational and complex. As he told analysts on the call, \u201cAI is boosting our ability to deeply understand user intent for a given search query and to find the most relevant ad. Even when we don\u2019t have a direct user query, we\u2019re making significant strides in improving relevance.\u201d\nAt the same time, social commerce is gaining weight through YouTube. The platform now sees more than 200 million hours of daily viewing on connected TVs in the U.S., and over 10 million channels publish Shorts each day, creating a large surface for AI-driven product discovery tied to creator content.\nAI Demand Is Showing Up in the Numbers\nThe financial results point to where that activity is translating into revenue. Google Services generated $89.6 billion, up 16%, with subscriptions and Search leading the gains. Cloud crossed $20 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time, driven by enterprise demand for AI infrastructure and models.\nChief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi detailed the scale of that demand, noting that operating income rose 30% to $39.7 billion.\nThe growth is being supported by significant investment. Capital expenditures reached $35.7 billion in the quarter, with the majority directed toward servers and data centers to support AI workloads.\nThat spending reflects both opportunity and constraint. Executives acknowledged that demand for AI compute is outpacing supply in certain areas, particularly in cloud services, where capacity limitations held back potential revenue.\nShares were up about 6% in after hours trading.\nBalancing Growth With Capacity\nAlphabet\u2019s response has been to accelerate investment while refining how resources are allocated. The company is expanding its use of proprietary chips, scaling data center capacity and, in some cases, supplying hardware directly to customers.\nThe underlying strategy is to control the full AI stack, from infrastructure to applications, and to use that position to shape how commerce evolves. That includes reworking advertising formats to fit within AI-driven interactions and exploring how subscriptions and transaction-based models might complement traditional ad revenue.\nPichai emphasized that the transition is still nascent, even as adoption accelerates. \u201cWe are in very, very early innings of all that,\u201d he said, referring to the broader move toward agentic systems and AI-driven workflows.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Alphabet Is Rebuilding Search as a Transaction Engine appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T20:05:39-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T20:05:39-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Google-Alphabet-earnings.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "Alphabet", "digital transformation", "Earnings", "Google", "News", "PYMNTS News" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3693595", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/ai-is-fueling-microsofts-growth-can-it-sustain-the-costs/", "title": "AI Is Fueling Microsoft\u2019s Growth. Can It Sustain the Costs?", "content_html": "Microsoft is taking a platform approach to artificial intelligence. During the tech giant\u2019s third quarter 2026 earnings call Wednesday (April 29), leadership laid out their bet that in the agentic computing era, value is most likely to accrue to ecosystems rather than standalone products.
The post AI Is Fueling Microsoft\u2019s Growth. Can It Sustain the Costs? appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Microsoft is taking a platform approach to artificial intelligence. During the tech giant\u2019s third quarter 2026 earnings call Wednesday (April 29), leadership laid out their bet that in the agentic computing era, value is most likely to accrue to ecosystems rather than standalone products.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\n\u201cWe are focused on delivering cloud and AI infrastructure and solutions that empower every business to eval-max their outcomes in the agentic computing era,\u201d said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft.\nThe company delivered double-digit growth across its core segments, primarily fueled by massive demand for AI and cloud services. Microsoft\u2019s AI business alone surpassed a $37 billion annual revenue run rate and grew 123% year over year; while company revenue reached $82.9 billion, up 18% year over year, and net income climbed 23% to $31.8 billion.\nStill, Microsoft\u2019s better-than-expected results come against a volatile backdrop for the shares in early 2026. The stock tumbled nearly 25% earlier in the year amid investor concerns over elevated capital spending and signs of a potential slowdown in cloud growth, before rebounding about 21% since late March.\nThe return on investment (ROI) on Microsoft\u2019s aggressive push into AI infrastructure, which reached $30.9 billion for the quarter, was a focus on Wednesday\u2019s call.\nMicrosoft\u2019s share price slipped by around 2% in after-hours trading.\nSee also: Microsoft Agrees to End Revenue-Sharing With OpenAI\u00a0\nCloud as the Operating System of AI\nThe financial numbers reveal a clear hierarchy within Microsoft\u2019s business. Intelligent Cloud, anchored by Azure, grew 30% year over year to $34.7 billion, with Azure itself expanding 40%. This segment is no longer just a hosting environment; it is becoming the operating system for AI.\nThis shift is reinforced by the company\u2019s commercial remaining performance obligation, which surged 99% to $627 billion. That backlog is effectively a forward-looking indicator of enterprise commitment to Microsoft\u2019s cloud and AI stack. It suggests that customers are not experimenting at the margins with AI but are re-architecting their operations around these platforms.\nAnd while infrastructure captures headlines, Microsoft\u2019s Productivity and Business Processes segment tells a more nuanced story about how AI is reshaping work itself. Revenue in this segment reached $35 billion, up 17%, with Microsoft 365 Commercial cloud revenue growing 19% and consumer cloud revenue surging 33%.\nElsewhere, Xbox hardware revenue dropped 33%, a decline largely cushioned by continued strength in the company\u2019s commercial cloud and productivity businesses.\nHowever, the long-term margin profile of AI remains an open question. Training and deploying large-scale models is computationally expensive, and the economics of AI services are still evolving. Microsoft\u2019s scale provides a significant advantage, but it also raises the stakes. Sustaining profitability while investing aggressively in infrastructure may require continuous optimization of both hardware and software efficiency.\nSee also: CFOs Suffer From Consumption as Tech Teams AI Tokenmaxx\u00a0\nA Platform Strategy for the Agentic Era\nMicrosoft\u2019s performance must be viewed in the context of a competitive AI landscape. Rivals are investing heavily in both infrastructure and models, but few can match Microsoft\u2019s combination of scale, enterprise relationships, and integrated product suite.\nBut while the company\u2019s third-quarter results mark a moment of acceleration, they also raise questions about sustainability. Can the company maintain triple-digit growth in its AI business? Will infrastructure investments continue to deliver proportional returns? How will pricing models evolve as AI becomes ubiquitous?\nMicrosoft and OpenAI on Monday (April 27) revised their partnership agreement in a way that loosened the startup\u2019s ties to the software giant, allowing it greater latitude to work with Microsoft competitors, including Amazon. The agreement also placed a ceiling on the revenue OpenAI must share with Microsoft through 2030.\nPYMNTS covered Tuesday (April 28) that Citigroup increased its global AI market forecast to exceed $4.2 trillion by 2030 amid rising enterprise adoption.\nAnd findings in the\u00a0January edition\u00a0of \u201cThe CAIO Report\u201d from PYMNTS Intelligence reveal that, across industries, companies are converging on the same handful of high-impact uses for AI. Rather than fragmenting into niche or industry-specific uses, the report found agentic AI adoption is clustering around a common set of high-leverage functions: customer insight, product life cycle management and strategic analytics.\nSeparate data in the PYMNTS Intelligence report \u201cSmart Spending: How AI Is Transforming Financial Decision Making\u201d found that more than 8 in 10 CFOs at large companies are either already using AI or considering adopting it.\n\r\n\r\nThe post AI Is Fueling Microsoft\u2019s Growth. Can It Sustain the Costs? appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T19:19:39-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T19:19:39-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Microsoft-earnings-xxx1.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "AI infrastructure", "AI Investment", "Microsoft", "News", "PYMNTS News", "Earnings" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3692289", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/etsy-bets-on-ai-to-attract-the-shoppers-its-been-losing/", "title": "Etsy Bets on AI to Attract the Shoppers It\u2019s Been Losing", "content_html": "Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how people shop. On Etsy, it\u2019s changing how they discover.
The post Etsy Bets on AI to Attract the Shoppers It\u2019s Been Losing appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how people shop. On Etsy, it\u2019s changing how they discover.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nEtsy had brand recognition and 86 million active buyers. What it lacked was a system that could surface the right product to the right buyer at the right moment. The company is now building that with AI. And in Q1, the buyer count grew sequentially for the first time in eight quarters.\nEtsy\u2019s mobile app drives about 47% of total gross merchandise sales and is where the new model is most thoroughly tested. Search and recommendation engines once tuned to maximize conversion are being rebuilt around individual buyer behavior over time. Mobile app sales grew 11.2% year over year in Q1, up from 6.6% the prior quarter. Desktop and mobile web turned positive too.\nAI Enters the Transaction Layer\nThe core mechanism is a new class of machine learning models that build persistent buyer profiles, mapping past shopping behavior to Etsy\u2019s catalog in real time. Early tests show higher add-to-cart rates and conversion. The models also push discovery beyond a shopper\u2019s stated search intent, pulling up categories they haven\u2019t previously browsed.\n\u201cWe\u2019re shifting toward a more personalized, relevance-driven approach with ML (machine learning) models that learn from both past behavior and real-time intent,\u201d CEO Kruti Patel Goyal said on the earnings call. \u201cWe\u2019re already starting to see positive signals.\u201d\nThe same buyer-profile logic now drives Etsy\u2019s owned marketing channels. Push notifications and email campaigns grew gross merchandise sales (GMS) in the double digits year over year without a comparable increase in spend. The company also fully in-sourced its paid social operation during the quarter, cutting agency costs and tightening targeting control.\nOn the seller side, Etsy is using AI to compress listing time. It built AI-powered listing tools last year and is now expanding into more automated workflows, reducing the manual inputs required to describe, tag and price a product. Two conversational agents shipped in Q1, one to help buyers find gifts through natural language, one to surface performance data for sellers. Both were built and deployed in weeks.\nEtsy is also building into the agentic commerce channel through integrations with OpenAI, Microsoft and Google. An Etsy App in ChatGPT is in development. The company described early agentic traffic as high-intent but still a fraction of a percent of total visits.\nWhere Buyer Behavior Is Shifting\nAverage order value rose year over year. Three factors drove it: foreign exchange tailwinds worth about 190 basis points of GMS growth, higher listing prices following the expiration of the U.S. de minimis exemption and search changes surfacing higher-priced inventory. The FX and tariff-related lift is expected to fade through the year.\nNon-U.S. buyer GMS grew in constant currency for the first time since 2023. The U.S. import trade lane, which slowed after the initial tariff shock, returned to positive growth. GMS gains were broad-based across income cohorts, strongest at the top.\nPurchase frequency stayed below prior-year levels. That\u2019s the number Etsy hasn\u2019t fixed yet. The company said the personalization work now showing up in engagement metrics is the precursor to a frequency inflection but gave no timing commitment.\nWhat Else Stood Out\n\nActive buyers reached 86.6 million, down 2.1% year over year but up sequentially for the first time in eight quarters. Gross buyer additions came in at 11.9 million, up 4.8% year over year.\nEtsy Ads was the lead driver of take rate expansion, as machine learning improvements to ad relevance and seller budget pacing lifted monetization. Offsite Ads and Etsy Payments also contributed to the 180-basis-point year-over-year increase.\nThe company ran occasion-based marketing activations during the quarter, including a Tanner Fletcher collaboration for New York Bridal Fashion Week and a PinkPantheress partnership for Coachella. Birthdays were the largest and fastest-growing gift segment in Q1.\nEtsy launched an Etsy Insider loyalty beta and is expanding loyalty ownership across product, engineering, marketing and operations.\n\nTop-Line Results \nQ1 2026 revenue was $631 million, up 7.6% year over year for the Etsy marketplace. Marketplace revenue was $432.8 million, up 6.3%. Services revenue was $198.5 million, up 10.5%. Take rate was 25.7%, up 180 basis points year over year. Net income from continuing operations was $104.7 million, compared to a loss of $35.1 million in the year-ago period. Etsy held $1.6 billion in cash and investments at quarter-end.\nFor Q2, the company offered GMS of $2.48 billion to $2.53 billion, up 3% to 5% year over year.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Etsy Bets on AI to Attract the Shoppers It\u2019s Been Losing appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T13:06:46-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T13:06:46-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Etsy.jpg", "tags": [ "AI", "ecommerce", "Etsy", "News", "Product Discovery", "PYMNTS News", "Earnings" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3691992", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/sofi-adds-1-1-million-members-as-cross-sell-gains-speed/", "title": "SoFi Adds 1.1 Million Members as Cross-Sell Gains Speed", "content_html": "SoFi\u2019s first-quarter results point to a platform strategy that is no longer aspirational but measurable, as member growth, product adoption and cross-selling combine to deepen engagement across its ecosystem.
The post SoFi Adds 1.1 Million Members as Cross-Sell Gains Speed appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "SoFi\u2019s first-quarter results point to a platform strategy that is no longer aspirational but measurable, as member growth, product adoption and cross-selling combine to deepen engagement across its ecosystem.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nBut in early trading action on Wednesday (April 29), investors sent the stock lower by 12%, as revenue tied to its tech platform slipped 27%, notching a $75 million quarter due to a client\u2019s transitioning off that platform, according to an earnings release.\nElsewhere, an examination of the numbers and the conference call remarks show how the firm\u2019s overall ecosystem strategy is taking hold. SoFi added 1.1 million new members in the quarter, bringing its total to 14.7 million, a 35% increase from a year ago. Product adoption is moving even faster. The company added 1.8 million new products, lifting total products to 22.2 million, up 39% year over year.\nMore telling is how those products are being opened. Fully 43% of new products were taken by existing members, up from 36% a year earlier. That acceleration in cross-buy is central to the platform thesis, as it signals that customers are expanding their relationship over time.\nCEO Anthony Noto stated on the conference call with analysts that the numbers in the quarter \u201cclearly demonstrates the effectiveness of our Everything Financial Services app strategy and our ability to build deeper multi-product relationships with members, which in turn will drive a higher lifetime value.\u201d\nDeposits, Lending and Platform Economics\nDirect deposit remains the anchor of that relationship. While management did not isolate quarterly inflows on the call, deposits rose by $2.7 billion sequentially to more than $40 billion, providing a stable funding base for lending and reinforcing daily engagement.\nLending continues to drive both revenue and usage. SoFi originated $12.2 billion in loans during the quarter, its highest level to date, spanning personal, student and home categories. Personal loans accounted for $8.3 billion of that total, reflecting ongoing demand to refinance high-interest credit card balances.\nThe loan platform business added another $3 billion in originations, allowing SoFi to generate fee income while managing capital and credit exposure. That structure provides two revenue streams: recurring net interest income from loans held on balance sheet, and upfront fees from loans originated for third parties.\nDuring the question-and-answer session with analysts, CFO Chris Lapointe said that \u201cthe characteristics of our member acquisition are in line with what they\u2019ve been historically. Each business has an individual marketing plan that benefits from different channels. The lending business has historically been one that relies on legacy channels such as direct mail, but it is heavily influenced by affiliate partnerships. Our SoFi Money product is a broad-based digital strategy that we leverage to drive good marketing efficiencies.\u201d\nTechnology and Product Expansion\nThe platform extends beyond lending. Financial services and technology platform segments together generated just over $500 million in revenue, or nearly half of the total.\nGalileo and the broader technology stack remain part of that mix, even as management prepares to rebrand and consolidate offerings under SoFi Technology Solutions. The intent is to package payments, core banking, and risk tools into a single enterprise offering that can serve external clients while supporting internal growth.\nAt the same time, new products continue to feed the ecosystem. The relaunch of SoFi Plus as a paid subscription is already driving incremental engagement, with management noting that most new subscribers are existing members who then add another product.\nFinancially, the company reported $1.1 billion in revenue, up 41% year over year, marking its second consecutive quarter above the $1 billion threshold.\nThe composition of that revenue is shifting. Net interest income contributed roughly $690 million, while approximately $390 million came from fees tied to interchange, brokerage, technology and loan platforms. That balance reflects a business that is still led by lending but increasingly supported by non-lending streams.\n\r\n\r\nThe post SoFi Adds 1.1 Million Members as Cross-Sell Gains Speed appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-29T11:31:12-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-29T11:31:12-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SoFi-Technologies.jpg", "tags": [ "Earnings", "financial services", "FinTech", "loans", "News", "PYMNTS News", "SoFi", "stock market" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3690024", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/booking-holdings-ai-assistants-slash-costs-and-boost-bookings/", "title": "Booking Holdings AI Assistants Slash Costs and Boost Bookings", "content_html": "Booking Holdings is seeing benefits from its investments in generative artificial intelligence and is continuing to expand its AI-powered capabilities across its operations, executives said Tuesday (April 28) during the company\u2019s first quarter earnings call.
The post Booking Holdings AI Assistants Slash Costs and Boost Bookings appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Booking Holdings is seeing benefits from its investments in generative artificial intelligence and is continuing to expand its AI-powered capabilities across its operations, executives said Tuesday (April 28) during the company\u2019s first quarter earnings call.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\n\u201cOur approach remains disciplined and focused on where AI can drive meaningful impact across our products and services \u2014 improving effectiveness for travelers and partners, driving internal efficiencies, and working closely with leading external partners to ensure we are well positioned in the event that current usage of frontier LLMs [large language models] for travel discovery and planning becomes more closely tied to direct, immediate booking execution,\u201d Booking Holdings CEO and President Glenn Fogel said during the call.\nBooking Holdings\u2019 travel and related platforms include Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable.\nOutlining how the company\u2019s platforms are using AI, Fogel said Priceline\u2019s AI travel agent Penny has been getting more interactive and more personalized, and in early testing \u201cwe are seeing a noticeable uplift from users who engage with Penny compared to non-Penny users.\u201d\nBooking.com\u2019s AI-driven capabilities have grown to include enhanced natural language search and more dynamic discovery features. In addition, agentic service flows for complaints and cancellations have reduced customer service contacts and improved the post-booking experience.\nOpenTable launched an AI Concierge that initially answered diner questions and is now evolving into a broader discovery tool. The platform is also developing capabilities to help OpenTable\u2019s restaurant partners streamline their operations and gain actionable insights. When launching this AI assistant in July 2025, OpenTable said it answered 80% of diners\u2019 questions, reducing the need for phone calls to restaurants.\nAgoda found that its AI-assisted automation drove a double-digit year-over-year reduction in customer service costs per booking. Fogel said this is an example of the \u201cnotable opportunity\u201d AI presents when it comes to productivity and efficiency.\nBeyond these internal efforts, Booking Holdings is also partnering with OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Amazon and other leading AI organizations to position itself to meet demand for travel and related services wherever they may appear.\n\u201cAs gen AI reshapes how travelers discover and plan trips, we are focused on meeting them wherever that journey begins,\u201d Fogel said during the call.\n \n\r\n\r\nThe post Booking Holdings AI Assistants Slash Costs and Boost Bookings appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-28T21:17:56-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-28T21:17:56-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Booking-Holdings-earnings-xxx1.jpg", "tags": [ "Booking Holdings", "News", "PYMNTS News", "reservations", "travel", "What's Hot", "Earnings" ] }, { "id": "https://www.pymnts.com/?p=3689952", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/earnings/2026/crypto-fueled-robinhoods-rise-its-collapse-is-reshaping-the-business/", "title": "Crypto Fueled Robinhood\u2019s Rise. Its Collapse Is Reshaping the Business", "content_html": "Can growth disappoint? It sure can. Particularly across the FinTech landscape where the tensions between company ambitions and investor expectations can play out in new and unexpected forms.
The post Crypto Fueled Robinhood\u2019s Rise. Its Collapse Is Reshaping the Business appeared first on PYMNTS.com.
\n", "content_text": "Can growth disappoint? It sure can. Particularly across the FinTech landscape where the tensions between company ambitions and investor expectations can play out in new and unexpected forms.\r\n\t\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\r\n\r\n\r\n\t\nTake, for example, Robinhood which on Tuesday (April 28) announced its first quarter 2026 earnings. Robinhood\u2019s revenue climbed 15% year over year to $1.07 billion, yet that number still fell short of analyst expectations, sending the stock lower.\nThe most striking feature of the quarter was not the revenue miss itself but the reshuffling of where that revenue comes from. Historically, Robinhood\u2019s growth engine was powered by transaction-based activity, and especially cryptocurrency trading. That engine is now sputtering, with crypto trading revenue plunging roughly 47% year over year.\nIn its place, two newer revenue streams have stepped into the spotlight: subscription services and prediction markets.\n\u201cIn Q1, customers remained engaged and rapidly adopted new products, leading to a 20 percent-plus annualized net deposit growth rate, double digit growth across equities and options, and record volumes for prediction markets, futures, and index options,\u201d said Shiv Verma, CFO of Robinhood, on Tuesday\u2019s investor call.\nThis shift marks a profound evolution of the platform. Robinhood is no longer just a brokerage. It is becoming a hybrid platform where investing, speculation and entertainment can increasingly blur.\nSee also: Robinhood Feels Chill as Crypto Slump Cools Revenue \u00a0\u00a0\nRobinhood\u2019s Push to Become a Super App\nRobinhood\u2019s results show a deliberate strategic pivot from a trading app synonymous with retail speculation to an integrated financial ecosystem designed to capture lifetime customer value. That pivot was repeatedly stressed by executive\u2019s during the earnings call.\nThe company\u2019s bet is that the next generation of retail investors doesn\u2019t want fragmented financial services. They want a unified interface that collapses brokerage, banking, advisory, and even social engagement into a single experience.\n\u201cDriven by our relentless product velocity and innovation, Robinhood is increasingly positioned at the center of our customers\u2019 financial lives, just as we enter the early innings of the Great Wealth Transfer,\u201d explained Vlad Tenev, Robinhood\u2019s chairman and CEO.\nStill, declining user engagement was a key factor behind the company\u2019s revenue miss, even as total assets on the platform continued to rise, surging 39% year over year to $307 billion.\nThis divergence between asset growth and trading activity suggests that users may already be treating Robinhood less as a trading app and more as a passive investment platform. While that may improve long-term stability, it can reduce the frequency of revenue-generating transactions.\nRobinhood\u2019s reported financials support this. Transaction-based revenue, long the backbone of Robinhood\u2019s business, grew just 7%. Meanwhile, net interest revenue climbed 24%, and subscription-driven \u201cother revenue\u201d rose 57%.\nThe subscription model also signals a broader philosophical shift. Instead of monetizing individual trades, Robinhood is increasingly monetizing relationships. That pivot mirrors the evolution of platforms like Amazon Prime or Apple\u2019s services ecosystem \u2014 where subscription layers become the connective tissue of user loyalty.\nSee also:\u00a0Bank Charters Are Reshaping Who Can Compete for Consumer Deposits\nDuring Tuesday\u2019s call, Robinhood executives introduced innovations ranging from AI-powered tools like Cortex Assistant to new financial products such as custodial accounts, a premium credit card, and expanded crypto offerings. Prediction markets, gamified interfaces, and social features are becoming central to the platform\u2019s user experience.\nStill, execution remains uneven. Revenue growth is still tied to external factors \u2014 market volatility, crypto cycles, and event-driven trading spikes \u2014 that the company cannot control. And while new products offer promise, they also introduce complexity and risk.\nPrediction markets and event contracts, which can resemble sports betting in some respects, exist in a gray area that varies by jurisdiction. Legal challenges are already emerging, with some states questioning whether such offerings constitute unlicensed gambling.\nCompounding Robinhood\u2019s challenges is also the simple fact of intensifying competition from both FinTech startups and incumbent financial institutions. Traditional brokerages are rapidly modernizing their platforms, while also expanding into areas that once differentiated Robinhood such as commission-free trading and even cryptocurrency access.\nMeanwhile, newer FinTech players are experimenting with alternative engagement models, including social trading and AI-driven investment tools. In this environment, Robinhood\u2019s challenge is not just to grow, but to remain distinct.\nAfter all, beneath the headline metrics of Robinhood\u2019s first quarter earnings lies a more complex story, one that signals a structural shift not only for Robinhood but for the broader ecosystem of retail investing.\n\r\n\r\nThe post Crypto Fueled Robinhood\u2019s Rise. Its Collapse Is Reshaping the Business appeared first on PYMNTS.com.", "date_published": "2026-04-28T20:24:24-04:00", "date_modified": "2026-04-28T20:24:24-04:00", "authors": [ { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" } ], "author": { "name": "PYMNTS", "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/author/pymnts/", "avatar": "https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/679fcf5c2ed5358e99e8e23b22e3b5d761e37bdb76fa7b0e13d8ecd9ff01bf88?s=512&d=blank&r=g" }, "image": "https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Robinhood-1.jpg", "tags": [ "Cryptocurrency", "News", "online trading", "prediction markets", "PYMNTS News", "Robinhood", "subscriptions", "Earnings" ] } ] }