PayPal says it’s ‘becoming a technology company again’ — that means AI
PayPal says it’s ‘becoming a technology company again’ — that means AI
PayPal 表示正在“重回科技公司行列”——这意味着拥抱人工智能
PayPal is looking toward the future, despite its falling stock and looming layoffs. In its first-quarter earnings call, CEO Enrique Lores told investors that PayPal needs to “recommit to the fundamentals,” which included “becoming a technology company again.” 尽管股价下跌且面临裁员压力，PayPal 仍将目光投向了未来。在第一季度财报电话会议上，首席执行官 Enrique Lores 告诉投资者，PayPal 需要“重申基本面”，其中包括“重新成为一家科技公司”。
There was no need to read between the lines — PayPal was pitching an AI-powered turnaround. Lores explicitly said so, telling analysts on this week’s call that leading companies find ways to differentiate themselves by innovating and that now is the time for PayPal to take action. This includes modernizing its tech platform, moving faster to become “cloud-native,” and “aggressively adopting AI in our development processes,” Lores said. The latter would increase developer productivity and shorten time to market, he added. 无需过度解读——PayPal 正在推行一项以人工智能为驱动的转型计划。Lores 在本周的电话会议上明确向分析师表示，领先的公司总能通过创新实现差异化，而现在正是 PayPal 采取行动的时候。Lores 称，这包括实现技术平台现代化、加快向“云原生”转型，以及“在开发流程中积极采用人工智能”。他补充说，后者将提高开发人员的生产力并缩短产品上市时间。
It’s a startling admission from PayPal that it has yet to fully embrace AI in-house, when AI-assisted coding is one of the breakout areas where the technology has truly excelled. Other consumer tech companies have rapidly adopted AI in recent months to assist with coding, with Spotify even declaring in February that its top developers haven’t written a line of code since December. Meanwhile, top dev teams are trying to outcompete one another by tokenmaxxing — a proxy for understanding who at the company is experimenting with AI more often, based on the number of AI tokens they use. PayPal is only now catching up, it seems. PayPal 承认尚未在内部全面拥抱人工智能，这令人感到惊讶，因为人工智能辅助编程正是该技术表现最为突出的领域之一。其他消费科技公司近几个月来已迅速采用人工智能来辅助编程，Spotify 甚至在 2 月份宣称，其顶级开发人员自 12 月以来就没再写过一行代码。与此同时，顶尖开发团队正通过“Token 最大化”（tokenmaxxing）来相互竞争——这是一种衡量公司内部谁更频繁地使用人工智能实验的指标，基于他们消耗的 AI Token 数量。看来，PayPal 现在才刚刚赶上来。
Lores said the company has formed a new “AI transformation and simplification” team to help with its enterprise AI agenda. Combined with the planned layoffs, which Lores characterized as PayPal removing layers from its organizational structure, the addition of AI-enabled processes is expected to bring the company at least $1.5 billion in cost savings over the next two to three years, he said. Lores 表示，公司已成立了一个新的“人工智能转型与简化”团队，以推进其企业级人工智能议程。他指出，结合计划中的裁员（Lores 将其描述为 PayPal 正在精简组织架构），引入人工智能流程预计将在未来两到三年内为公司节省至少 15 亿美元的成本。
The company announced last week it was reorganizing its business, which streamlines the operation into three segments: checkout solutions and PayPal, consumer financial services (and Venmo), and payment services and crypto. In addition, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that PayPal plans to cut around 20% of its workforce over the next two to three years as part of its cost-savings plan, equating to north of 4,500 jobs. 该公司上周宣布进行业务重组，将运营精简为三个部门：结账解决方案与 PayPal、消费者金融服务（及 Venmo），以及支付服务与加密货币。此外，彭博社周二报道称，作为成本节约计划的一部分，PayPal 计划在未来两到三年内裁员约 20%，相当于超过 4,500 个工作岗位。
More cost savings will come from PayPal’s plans for AI adoption, company execs said on the call. That includes bringing AI into areas beyond coding, like customer service, support operations, and risk management, to name a few. “I think the changes that AI will enable us to do are … going to be very significant,” said Lores. “This is why we created a group last week, reporting to me, that is going to be in charge of driving — function by function, process by process — this AI transformation. And this is not about adopting AI as a technology, where we have done many pilots in the company, and we have seen what is possible. It’s really about understanding how can we redesign the key processes … this is what we have seen that really will drive significant savings.” 公司高管在电话会议上表示，更多的成本节约将来自 PayPal 的人工智能采用计划。这包括将人工智能引入编程以外的领域，例如客户服务、支持运营和风险管理等。Lores 说：“我认为人工智能将使我们实现的变化……将是非常显著的。这就是为什么我们上周成立了一个直接向我汇报的小组，负责逐个职能、逐个流程地推动这次人工智能转型。这不仅仅是采用人工智能技术——我们在公司内部已经做了很多试点，也看到了它的潜力。这实际上是关于如何重新设计关键流程……我们已经看到，这才是真正能带来显著成本节约的关键。”
Announcing an AI-driven push to cut costs while eliminating thousands of jobs underscores a core criticism of the technology — it comes with a human cost. It’s worth noting that, in this case, PayPal was already in need of restructuring. The company may have beat on its first-quarter earnings with revenue of $8.4 billion, up 7% year-over-year, but it forecast weak guidance for the second quarter, sending the stock tumbling after earnings. That follows a long post-pandemic decline that has sent the stock down over 80% from its 2021 high and has stunted PayPal’s growth. 宣布通过人工智能驱动来削减成本，同时裁减数千个工作岗位，凸显了该技术的一个核心批评点——它伴随着人力成本。值得注意的是，在这种情况下，PayPal 本身就已经需要重组。尽管该公司第一季度营收达到 84 亿美元，同比增长 7%，超出了预期，但其对第二季度的业绩指引疲软，导致财报发布后股价暴跌。在此之前，PayPal 经历了疫情后长期的下滑，股价较 2021 年的高点下跌了超过 80%，增长也陷入停滞。
Asked if separating Venmo into its own business meant the company would be open to selling it, Lores said that, for now, this is what made the most sense in terms of the turnaround plan. Still, he signaled openness to future deals by saying “my number one priority is to maximize shareholder value,” in answer to an analyst’s question about a sale. 当被问及将 Venmo 分拆为独立业务是否意味着公司愿意将其出售时，Lores 表示，就目前的转型计划而言，这是最合理的做法。不过，在回答分析师关于出售的问题时，他表示“我的首要任务是实现股东价值最大化”，暗示了对未来交易持开放态度。