How Visa wove AI into every facet of the company by approaching it as both a science and an art | Fortune

"According to Rajat Taneja, Visa's president of technology, the global payments company has woven AI into every part of its business. Employees across Visa are tapping AI in their everyday workflows for tasks ranging from data analysis to software development. The company has built more than 100 internal AI-powered business applications tailored to specific use cases and has over 2,500 engineers working specifically on AI. Visa is also using AI to create new products and services for its customers, such as faster onboarding, simplified processes for managing disputes, and infrastructure for agentic AI technologies."

"[AI] is part of the fabric of the company," Taneja said. "In everything we do, we're using it internally, and we're using it to create intelligent and smarter, more capable products for our customer base."

"But this didn't happen overnight, or even in just the past few years. Visa was already hard at work developing AI technologies and strategies when ChatGPT entered the scene and kicked off the corporate rush toward AI adoption. It's been a decade-long journey, and Taneja believes the approach the company was able to develop over that period-learning how to balance urgency with intention, and treating models as a science and governance as an art-played a big role in getting it this far."

Visa has embedded AI across its global payments operations and day-to-day employee workflows for tasks from data analysis to software development. The company has developed over 100 internal AI-powered business applications and staffed more than 2,500 engineers focused on AI. AI is used to create customer-facing products and services, including faster onboarding, simplified dispute management, and foundations for agentic AI capabilities. The company began major AI investments about a decade ago by rewriting its data platform to support deep neural nets and model training. The long-term approach emphasized balancing urgency with deliberate governance and treating models scientifically.

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