From Omnichannel to Open Banking: PYMNTS’ Most Quotable Quotes of 2024

Here at PYMNTS our main focus is exactly what the name says. But to our CEO Karen Webster’s credit, she saw that the digital shift that was happening in banking and the payments sector would be so dramatic that it needed to be set against the rest of the economy for context and comparison. For example, how do you discuss changes in open banking without considering how consumers and businesses shop and communicate?

The answer is you can’t. The Connected Economy methodology was born out of that instinct and knowledge and it defined 10 pillars that spanned banking, working, having fun, staying healthy and more. All share several touchpoints with payments and those touchpoints were reflected in our coverage this year of the Connected Economy. Here’s a sampling of how those connected experiences played out at PYMNTS for 2024.

Rise of Omnichannel Retail

Our “shop” pillar of the connected economy featured nothing less than two of the biggest retailers on the planet. As consumers’ retail expectations rapidly evolve, Walmart is looking to omnichannel technology to revitalize the brick-and-mortar journey. Cedric Clark, EVP of store operations at Walmart U.S., spoke with PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in October about how the retailer is leveraging digital tools to keep the physical store from becoming obsolete as consumers seek engaging on-site experiences.

“[The] papers 15, 20 years ago … talked about retail Armageddon. The physical stores were dying,” Clark noted, adding that stores have had to evolve to become a more immersive, sensory experience. “Now, we can look at that in a digital way, and now we [take] data to move an associate in the most efficient way. … The physical store still plays a role, and as you change the capabilities within it, you can still have the treasure hunt, and you can still have the serendipity of the humanity.”

And we scored an interview earlier in the year, in May to be exact, with Amazon when it announced the expansion of its partnership with Grubhub. In an interview with PYMNTS, Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, spoke to how the collaboration, which enables consumers across the U.S. to order from hundreds of thousands of Grubhub restaurants directly on Amazon.com and the Amazon Shopping app, will boost customer frequency.

“[Consumers] will be able to find this in [our] search which is, obviously, a key part of our shopping experience, but also be able to find it through the Prime ingresses, grocery ingresses and marketing placements that we have throughout the site,” Ghani said. “And so, we’re just trying to make it really simple for our members to not only find out about what value they have in their Prime membership, but also to actually benefit from it on monthly, weekly, daily basis — however it fits into their busy lives.”

Prescription: Digital Healthcare

One of the Connected Economy sectors we’re most excited about covering next year is digital healthcare. We spoke with several innovative companies in this sector, perhaps the most intriguing of which is Fabric. Telehealth, for example, has evolved from a niche service to a central element of healthcare, a shift accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This evolution reflects a broader move toward digital health solutions that fundamentally change patient care. The PYMNTS interview came on the heels of Fabric’s acquisition of Walmart’s telehealth business, MeMD, in June. The acquisition adds 30,000 employers and 5 million members, enhancing Fabric’s employer strategy.

“We’re creating that on-demand experience for patients to get care through a more omnichannel lens,” Aniq Rahman, founder and CEO of Fabric, told PYMNTS in an interview. “We want to give great care virtually so people don’t have to leave their homes.”

All Eyes on AI

We’re also excited to continue our coverage of the exponential growth in artificoal intelligence (AI) that’s sure to continue in 2025. We had more than a dozen senior executives appear in PYMNTS from various AI companies, but the one that sticks out is Sandbox AQ. It’s combining AI with quantum computing principles.

“The physical world is defined by quantum mechanics,” Chris Hume, senior director of business operations for SandboxAQ, told PYMNTS. “The more effectively we can understand those interactions and then model those interactions, the more efficiently and effectively you can build predictive models. With the algorithms that we’re developing combined with the classical computer hardware that’s available today, you can build better predictive models, and that’s the exciting part. And that’s the opportunity at hand.”

Gamification of Retail

And what would a year in the Connected Economy be without a little fun? Our “have fun” pillar covers gaming and entertainment and included companies like Neon, which is creating a “Shopify for gaming” platform for gamers and creators.  Chris Faught, CEO of Neon, had the idea to create a direct-to-consumer (D2C) platform for the gaming industry in 2022. He had been a gamer for his whole life and had been fascinated by the business and developer angles. And through a long stint building out payment products and services at the likes of Affirm, Apple Pay, Walmart and others, Faught said he became “irrationally obsessed with the concept of building payment networks” observing the rise of digital wallets and buy buttons.

“If we were to become the Shopify for games and allow a studio to send their paying users ‘out’ of a game or compliment their in-app distribution with something on the web — and to save money [by not paying commissions to the platform], wouldn’t that be interesting?” Faught said.