By John Clark
From the rise of AI-powered security to the dominance of contactless transactions, staying informed on the latest trends may not just be helpful, but could be essential for small businesses aiming to meet today’s consumer expectations. One of the UK’s leading card payment solutions provider, takepayments, utilised internal data and insights from a 2025 Commerce and Payment Trends Report to provide insights and predictions into payment innovations for 2025. (67 words)
John Clark, Product Manager at takepayments, has provided his top three predictions for payment innovations in 2025 and what this means for small businesses in the UK:
1. Contactless payments could carry on leading the way as convenience options
Contactless payments have solidified their place as the top payment choice for consumers, largely due to their convenience for everyday transactions. We found that the number of contactless payments in the UK has grown nearly 20% in the last year, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down.
Digital wallets are also rising in popularity alongside contactless. However, digital wallets are already evolving; business owners should be on the lookout for emerging ‘super wallets’. Super wallets use AI speech recognition so users can transfer money, reveal account balances, and make online purchases by voice command. They can also provide detailed spending insights and provide information on credit scores.
For many consumers, contactless payments are no longer just a preference — they’re an expectation. This shift is particularly noticeable among younger generations, who have largely adopted mobile payments as part of their routine; our research showed that those aged 18-24 preferred to pay via mobile wallet, compared to only 5% of those over 55.
What this means for businesses:
To stay competitive in 2025 and beyond, small businesses should consider prioritising flexible POS systems that can accept both contactless and mobile payments, ensuring a smooth, convenient payment experience for their customers.
While flexible and varied payment methods are essential for businesses to appeal to the modern customer, it’s vital they also prioritise security without compromising the user experience. Customers of today expect a quick, seamless transaction, but they also want the assurance that their information – and money – is protected.
Strong authentication measures, like 3D Secure, tokenisation, or biometric verification, can enhance security in a way that’s almost unnoticeable to the customer and limits friction in their checkout process. As digital payments become the norm, customers need to feel both secure and valued.
2. AI adoption could be huge for businesses who want to scale up
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming organisations across all sectors, from healthcare to technology. It offers opportunities to speed up processes to cut down on time and boost efficiencies.
For the payments industry, AI brings both enhanced security and improved customer experience. The adoption of AI in finance has surged, with 70% of banks with centralised generative AI operating models progressing to putting AI use cases into production. And AI is no longer a luxury for large corporations; it’s becoming more accessible to small businesses looking to streamline their operations, cut costs, and safeguard their systems.
Global Payments’ report revealed that 94% of SMBs were testing, deploying, or currently using AI to enhance biometric technology.
AI can help smaller businesses meet growing expectations for fast, seamless payments while protecting against increasingly sophisticated fraud. For example, AI-powered tools can automatically detect fraudulent activity in real-time, analyse customer behaviour to identify unusual activity patterns, and even lead to smoother checkout experiences, making them invaluable assets for scaling.
Artificial intelligence is also advancing to integrate with payment methods like point-of-sale (POS) systems, becoming an extension of a business’s customer support. AI-enabled POS systems could provide food and drink recommendations for hospitality businesses based on changing factors like peak periods. Or it could help to analyse stock levels and staff rotas to boost efficiencies and give small business owners one less thing to worry about.
What this means for businesses:
AI offers transformative potential for businesses, particularly for security and efficiency, and it’s becoming more accessible and affordable, even for small businesses.
Implementing AI tools, such as fraud detection algorithms and customer support chatbots, reduces operational costs and allows teams to focus on more strategic tasks. As digital payments continue to grow, AI-driven solutions provide the ideal balance of security and convenience, helping businesses stay competitive and their customers feel valued.
3. Consumer trust in biometric payments may increase
Biometric payments are quickly becoming a game-changer in the payment landscape, with consumers increasingly gravitating towards fingerprint and facial recognition as a secure, convenient alternative to traditional payment methods like chip and PIN.
The global biometric card market is estimated to experience a compounded annual growth rate of 117% from 2024 to 2029. The appeal lies in the blend of speed and security: 60% of consumers report feeling safer using biometric verification compared to using a PIN.
This added layer of security is showing promising results in minimising fraudulent activity, encouraging consumer confidence, and enhancing overall user experience. 82% of UK customers stated that they trust behavioural biometrics to prevent fraud, and 55% said that the technology enhances their opinion and trust in a business.
Global Payments’ report found that 31% of businesses were investing in biometrics to boost security, and of those currently adopting it, 94% have reported a very high or high positive impact.
What this means for businesses:
As public trust in biometric payments continues to increase, small businesses may benefit from adopting biometric-enabled POS systems to attract tech-savvy consumers and improve transaction security.
Biometrics offer a powerful blend of security and convenience, making them ideal for customer expectations of faster, easier, and more secure payments. For small businesses, adopting biometric technology can enhance the payment experience while also helping them to meet Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) measures — which is a requirement in the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) for all customer-initiated online card or contactless offline payments in the United Kingdom.
About the Author
An expert in payment products, John Clark has 10 years of experience with product development and getting products to market. Having previously worked across financial, fintech and eCommerce businesses John brings with him a wealth of knowledge when it comes to payment software.
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