Beyond Automation: How Maverick Payments is Using AI to Supercharge Human Expertise
The financial services landscape is currently undergoing a tectonic shift, driven by the rapid maturation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As the payments industry grapples with the integration of these powerful tools, a fundamental philosophical debate has emerged: Is AI primarily a mechanism for aggressive cost-cutting and workforce reduction, or is it a transformative engine for enhancing the merchant experience?
For many, the allure of AI lies in its potential to automate repetitive tasks and replace human labor. However, a growing number of industry leaders are challenging this narrative. At the forefront of this movement is Maverick Payments, a leader in payment infrastructure, which is positioning AI not as a replacement for human staff, but as a "vitamin"—a tool designed to make existing personnel stronger, more scalable, and more effective.
The Strategic Pivot: Aspirin or Vitamin?
In a recent appearance on the PYMNTS series, “What’s Next in Payments,” Ben Griefer, President and COO of Maverick Payments, addressed the critical dilemma facing fintech executives: “Aspirin or Vitamin?”
The “Aspirin” approach views AI as a cure for the pain of high operational costs—a way to trim headcount and optimize margins through automation. The “Vitamin” approach, which Griefer champions, views AI as a supplement to human intellect. By providing staff with advanced AI-driven tools, companies can achieve higher levels of performance that were previously impossible at scale.
“We’re essentially looking at it from a vitamin perspective,” Griefer explained. “Giving it to our existing staff to make them stronger, better, and more scalable.”
This distinction represents a seismic shift in how financial firms perceive their operational architecture. While immediate returns are often found in automation, Griefer argues that long-term competitive advantage lies in enhancing human performance. In an industry where trust and complex problem-solving are paramount, the human element remains the most significant differentiator.
A Chronology of the AI Integration at Maverick Payments
To understand the current trajectory of Maverick Payments, one must look at the firm’s evolution since its inception in 2012.
- 2012–2015: The Formative Years. Maverick began as a traditional sales organization. This period was characterized by firsthand exposure to the frictions of the payment ecosystem—fragmented onboarding, slow dispute management, and limited transparency.
- 2016–2020: The Infrastructure Pivot. Recognizing the "pains" of the industry, Maverick pivoted toward building a white-labeled infrastructure platform. The goal was to unify disparate systems into a cohesive, developer-friendly interface that could handle underwriting, risk, and analytics.
- 2021–2023: Scaling and Data Aggregation. As the company scaled, the sheer volume of data across sponsor banks and processing platforms grew exponentially. The need for faster decision-making became critical as real-time payments and agentic commerce began to take hold.
- 2024–Present: The AI Augmentation Era. Maverick began embedding AI directly into its workflows. Rather than launching a generic chatbot to deflect customer inquiries, the firm focused on "force multiplication"—equipping its risk analysts and support teams with AI-driven insights that allow them to make high-stakes decisions in seconds rather than hours.
Supporting Data: Efficiency as a Metric for Success
The practical application of this philosophy is best illustrated by Maverick’s approach to Service Level Agreements (SLAs). In the customer-facing side of financial services, speed is synonymous with quality.
“If we’re able to reduce our SLA for customer service from a 22-second hold time down to 10 seconds while we continue to grow that team, that’s where we see the value in AI,” Griefer noted.
This metric is vital because it demonstrates that the goal is not to eliminate the team, but to increase their capacity to serve more merchants without sacrificing the quality of the interaction. By offloading data synthesis and administrative heavy lifting to AI, human representatives can focus entirely on complex, nuanced, or time-sensitive issues that require empathy and executive judgment.
Official Responses and Strategic Philosophy
Maverick Payments has identified two distinct camps in the broader payments industry regarding AI adoption.
The Replacement Camp
This group is characterized by a desire to "lean out" operations. They see AI as a way to replace human employees with Large Language Models (LLMs) and automated agents. While this can yield short-term margin expansion, Griefer warns that it risks commoditizing the service. In financial services, where compliance, risk assessment, and relationship management are core pillars, the loss of human intuition can lead to catastrophic oversights.
The Augmentation Camp
Maverick firmly belongs to the second group. Their strategy involves embedding AI across the entire lifecycle of a payment:
- Merchant Onboarding: AI analyzes risk parameters and documentation in real-time, allowing human underwriters to review applications in minutes rather than days.
- Dispute Management: AI aggregates evidence from multiple sources, organizing it for human review and final adjudication.
- Analytics: Predictive AI models provide merchants and partners with actionable insights, turning raw data into strategic growth opportunities.
“We’re doubling down in areas like customer service because we are a big believer that in financial services, when a merchant or a partner needs to contact us, especially if it’s time-sensitive, they can get someone on the phone—they can deal with a real human,” Griefer emphasized.
The Implications of "Agentic Commerce"
The rise of real-time payments and agentic commerce—where autonomous software agents make transactions on behalf of users—is compressing the decision cycle for the entire industry. This creates an environment where humans, unaided by AI, simply cannot keep pace with the velocity of transactions.
Griefer argues that the "human-in-the-loop" model is not just a preference; it is a necessity for risk management. “The only way to keep up is pairing humans—whether it’s a risk analyst or an onboarding person—with AI so that they have the tools to keep up,” he said.
This approach has profound implications for how Maverick serves its network of reseller partners, including independent sales organizations (ISOs), software vendors, and vertical SaaS platforms. By providing a unified infrastructure that is "AI-ready," Maverick enables these partners to offer high-end, efficient payment experiences without having to navigate the regulatory and technical hurdles of building such systems from scratch.
Infrastructure: The Final Frontier
One of the most compelling insights shared by Griefer during his interview was the distinction between software features and fundamental infrastructure.
“What you cannot ‘vibe code’ is infrastructure,” Griefer stated, referencing the common trend of using AI to generate code. “We deliver that underlying foundation that they can bolt onto.”
While AI can help generate superficial improvements, it cannot replace the deep, structural work required to integrate multiple sponsor banks, navigate complex compliance regimes, and manage the underlying flow of funds. Maverick’s platform consolidates these fragmented processes into a single, cohesive system.
For software platforms looking to monetize payments, the burden of building this infrastructure is often too high. By providing a robust, AI-enhanced back-end, Maverick allows its partners to focus on their core product offerings while Maverick manages the complexities of the payment rails.
Conclusion: The Human Future of Fintech
The narrative surrounding AI in fintech is often dominated by doomsday scenarios regarding workforce displacement. However, the experience of Maverick Payments suggests a more optimistic and sustainable future.
By utilizing AI as a force multiplier, Maverick is successfully navigating the transition toward faster, more automated payments while simultaneously deepening its commitment to human expertise. As the industry continues to evolve, the winners will likely be those who recognize that while AI can process data at lightning speeds, it cannot replace the trust, nuance, and strategic decision-making provided by a skilled human professional.
In the final analysis, Maverick’s approach serves as a blueprint for the future of financial services: utilize the machine for scale, but keep the human for the soul of the business. As Griefer succinctly put it, the goal is not to remove the person from the process, but to empower them to be the best version of themselves in an increasingly digital world.
