With the groundwork complete, the roadmap became clear for additional enhancements. Modernising the infrastructure, migrating treasury data to the cloud, and automating core processes created the conditions necessary to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) at scale.
“I am a heavy user of AI – I believe it will define how treasury functions in the future,” says Balcioglu. “We at PayPal are fortunate because the company has made investments in a number of AI tools with significant internal tech support,” he adds. His message to his team is clear: AI is not a threat but a productivity multiplier, and the hands-on exposure they are gaining now represents a genuine professional advantage.
PayPal’s Group Treasurer assigns AI usage within treasury in two categories: first, the self-service model where employees use AI assistants to enhance their productivity for daily tasks, e.g. by reducing document review times. “This started growing organically and we offer internal workshops where people share best practices and learnings on how they are using AI effectively.”
The second category is more advanced: agentic AI that not only interfaces with internal Treasury systems and external information sources, but also instructs them, initiating actions and tasks. Balcioglu points to three examples:
Treasury conversational agent (already operational): an AI layer that allows the team to interrogate treasury data directly in natural language, and build dashboards on demand – e.g. exposure in a certain jurisdiction over a certain timeframe or the risk profile of the investment portfolio.
Counterparty analysis agent (nearly completed). The AI tool will allow the team to assess counterparty creditworthiness, monitor risk profiles, and reveal concentration exposures.
Bank account opening and closing agent (in design phase). Jointly built by the treasury cash management and treasury technology teams, this agent will orchestrate the full account lifecycle across internal ticketing and messaging systems, delivering real-time process visibility to the requester from initiation to completion.
Many of the AI initiatives currently in use at PayPal Treasury today emerged not from the top down, but from within the team itself. Treasury members were invited to identify their most cumbersome processes and articulate where AI could provide the greatest value (see Figure 1 below).
This call to action helped encourage a culture shift to “AI first,” confirms PayPal’s Kammy Tsang, Global Head of Cash Management: “That’s what we are most proud of. The fact that we are co-creators elevated morale, strengthened ownership, and gave colleagues a direct hand in shaping the future of their function.”
Figure 1: PayPal’s 2025 call to engage in treasury AI
Source: PayPal