Zip is ramping up its use of artificial intelligence and data-driven products to fuel profitable growth and deepen customer engagement, but this push to innovate also has to balance economic uncertainty, regulatory scrutiny and the realities of operating across very different markets.
Right now the company is positioning itself as a resilient player in a choppy environment. Its customer base in Australia covers roughly a tenth of the country’s adults and gives it a broad foundation of regular users. The business has been built to ride out shifting economic cycles by offering a mix of products rather than relying on a single type of lending or spending behaviour. As it enters fiscal 2026 the company is leaning into that breadth, backing new products and looking to extract more value from both existing and emerging customer segments.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2026, transaction volume across Australia and New Zealand rises by a little over 11% compared with the same period a year earlier, with spending up across all age groups. Management frames the current settings as geared for profitable expansion and channels capital into offerings like its newer “Zip Plus” product while keeping a close eye on cost discipline. At the same time the company is scaling its long-standing use of machine learning into broader generative AI tools that touch employees, processes and customer experiences. These tools now support areas such as merchant risk assessment and self-service customer support through an AI-enabled chatbot and this signals a shift from experimentation to day-to-day integration.
The organisation treats AI as a growth engine rather than just a way to trim headcount. Employees are given access to generative AI platforms and the business invests in training so teams can apply these tools confidently in their roles. Internal “innovation showcase” sessions encourage staff to surface ideas, while a lean innovation unit branded Fearless Frontiers focuses on long-term product bets. In the US this has already produced AI-powered concepts such as a personalised cash flow coaching tool and early work on agentic commerce, where autonomous software agents help customers manage spending and payments more proactively.
Work practices are evolving in parallel with the technology. In Australia and New Zealand the business sticks with a hybrid model and blends in office collaboration with the flexibility staff expect. The US operation by contrast runs as a remote first network and is anchored by a New York hub but brought together through regular in person sessions for reviews and planning. This approach seems to allow the company to attract talent across geographies while still maintaining a shared culture and clear alignment on goals without waiting for governments to dictate how often people should be at their desks.
Geopolitics and macro trends sit in the background of all these choices. The US now accounts for more than 80% of the group’s divisional cash earnings and in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 its US transaction volume climbs by about 47% in US dollars, with revenue growing just over 51%. That momentum is fuelled by both new and returning customers, particularly those using instalment payments to manage everyday non discretionary expenses rather than luxury purchases. The company sees this focus on essential spending as a buffer against cyclical downturns.
Viewed against the scale of the wider US payments market, Zip still looks to be at an early stage of a long runway. Total payments in the country are estimated at around $US12.8 trillion and instalment finance makes up only about 2% overall and roughly 6% of e commerce. That penetration is far lower than in more mature instalment markets such as Australia, Germany or Sweden where these products capture between 15% and more than 20% of online spending. If US adoption gradually converges toward those levels, Zip’s strategy of doubling down on its American business, strengthening AI driven products and maintaining flexible globally aware operations could set it up for substantial though not guaranteed growth.
