ACI Worldwide Unveils Advanced ‘Incremental Learning’ (AI) Technology To Counter Payment Fraud For Banks And Customers

ACI Worldwide, a globally renowned provider of real-time electronic payment and banking solutions, has announced the launch of its new ‘Incremental Learning’ technology – an innovative industry-first approach to machine learning that will enhance fraud protection for merchants and financial institutions and their customers.

‘Incremental Learning’ technology

ACI has filed a patent application for its ‘Incremental Learning’ technology, which is being implemented in machine learning models within ACI’s fraud prevention solutions, including Proactive Risk Manager, which delivers enterprise fraud management capabilities for financial institutions and intermediaries; and ACI ReD Shield, which underpins ACI’s secure eCommerce and merchant fraud management capabilities. 

ACI’s ‘Incremental Learning’ technology represents a significant advancement over current machine learning models

ACI’s ‘Incremental Learning’ technology represents a significant advancement over current machine learning models that need to be retrained as fraud patterns change. Incremental Learning models are able ‘to think for themselves’ and make small adjustments on an ongoing basis to ensure they remain relevant, even as fraudsters and genuine consumers change their behaviors. 13-month tests carried out on data from three major retail customers revealed that, while traditionally trained models began to degrade after three months, ACI’s incremental models maintained their performance over the full period of the test.

Proactive Risk Manager and ACI ReD Shield

“Traditional machine learning models in many cases are not sufficient to stop fraudsters in their tracks. As fraudsters become more sophisticated, we need to continuously advance our models to beat them at their own game,” said Jimmy Hennessy, Director of Data Science, ACI Worldwide. “Our global data science team has created a game-changing piece of machine learning technology that can be seamlessly integrated and future-proofs the precision and operational efficiency for over 5,000 institutions protected by our solutions today.”

ACI has more than 20 years of experience in designing and implementing machine learning models, which have long been a fundamental element within Proactive Risk Manager and ACI ReD Shield. ACI’s machine learning models will quickly and efficiently analyze all available features and data points, which will then be turned into intelligence that can build customer profiles, spot fraud signals and combat emerging fraud threats. Any anomalies are flagged in real time and immediate action is taken.

Fraud monitoring and prevention solutions

“We are the first vendor globally to roll out the new Incremental Learning technology across the merchants, payments and financial services sectors,” commented Fabian Gloerfeld, Head of Payments Intelligence, ACI Worldwide. “The new capability is a realization of ACI’s multi-year investments and will further enhance our sophisticated fraud monitoring and prevention solutions to help customers to dramatically reduce payments fraud.”