PayPal Showcases AI-Powered Innovation at Google Cloud Next '26, Built on the Foundation of One of the Largest Data Migrations in History

PayPal took the stage at Google Cloud Next '26 to share the results of one of the most significant data transformations in the company's history - a multi-year initiative to unify data systems across PayPal and reimagine its technology infrastructure for an AI-first world.

_{Ryan Cox from PayPal, Brian M. Bot from Cancer AI Alliance, and Ranjit Bawa from Deloitte
on stage at Google Cloud Next '26.}

Across eight sessions and breakout discussions, PayPal leaders shared how they are deploying agentic AI across both customer-facing commerce and internal operations, automating complex engineering tasks and freeing its teams to focus on the innovations that matter most: delivering fast, smart experiences for the hundreds of millions of consumers and merchants who rely on PayPal every day.

Laying the foundation

PayPal has made significant investments to modernize our technology stack and unify our data infrastructure. This includes one of the largest data transformations in our industry, creating a real-time, AI-ready foundation.

"A few years ago, we made a deliberate bet. We knew that before we could lead the next wave of AI-powered innovation, we had to do the foundational work. Today, we're showing how fast you can move when your data foundation is right." - Ryan Cox, Sr. Director, Cloud Engineer PayPal

That investment is already delivering results. By connecting systems and enabling real-time data access, PayPal is working towards accelerating decision-making, reducing complexity, and applying intelligence more consistently across its platform.

_{Mir Islam, Director, Software Engineer at PayPal, onstage at Google Cloud Next '26.}

From foundation to impact

With its data foundation in place, PayPal could apply AI faster, and more broadly across the business. From helping to reduce false declines to strengthening fraud detection and improving customer experiences, the company is leaning towards realizing measurable gains in both efficiency and performance.

One of the clearest examples of this transformation is happening inside PayPal.

PayPal has deployed an AI-powered agent that allows thousands of employees-from data scientists to customer success managers-to query data using natural language. There's no need for SQL, dashboards, or intermediary teams-employees can get answers in minutes instead of hours.

Building this capability at PayPal's scale required solving a critical challenge: enabling simple, conversational access to data while meeting the company's rigorous security and compliance standards.

_{Venkata Sangaraju, Senior Software Engineer at PayPal, onstage at Google Cloud Next '26.}

PayPal's engineering teams developed a custom architecture that keeps credentials encrypted and ensures interactions are audited, delivering a user experience their customers can rely on.

The impact is significant. Teams that once relied on engineering support can now move independently. Insights that previously took hours to generate are now available in minutes. And engineering time spent on manual data work is being redirected toward building the next generation of commerce experiences.

Read more: PayPal secures and scales governed conversational analytics with Looker, MCP

Looking ahead

Commerce is becoming more dynamic and increasingly shaped by AI. Supporting that shift requires infrastructure that can operate in real time, at a global scale PayPal plays a critical role in enabling that future. With deep expertise in identity, risk, and payments, the company provides a layer that allows transactions to happen reliably.

What PayPal demonstrated at Google Cloud Next is proof of what's possible when the right foundation is in place.