In 2025, the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in Portugal consolidated across all industries, including fintech.
The year was marked by soaring AI adoption and the rise of “AI-first” companies which leverage the technology to build smarter, faster, and more adaptive financial solutions, according to a new report by industry trade group Portugal Fintech.
The 2025 edition of the Portugal Fintech Report, released in October and produced in collaboration with KPMG, Visa, and local law firm Morais Leitao, draws on an open survey of members of Portugal Fintech and an analysis of the sector. It highlights the depth and breadth of AI adoption within the Portuguese fintech landscape.
Among the members reviewed and surveyed, 90% reported having already implemented AI in their internal operations, reflecting a maturing market in which AI is no longer a competitive differentiator, but a fundamental enabler of efficiency and performance. In addition, 74% stated that they have integrated AI directly into their products or services, underscoring its role as a driver of innovation and growth.
Within this landscape, finance management and regtech are leading the charge, with adoption rates of 91.7% and 90.9%, respectively. These companies are leveraging AI as a core driver for expansion, and are represented by ventures like nBanks, and Zango.
nBanks is a Portuguese fintech offering financial management software that aggregates financial and corporate information from companies for data-driven financial insights, customized reporting, analysis, and forecasting.
Zango builds specialized, expert-backed AI for compliance teams in financial services. The startup, which just emerged from stealth in July 2025 after raising US$4.8 million, has already onboarded prominent players, including Novobanco, the fourth-largest bank in Portugal, and is now gaining traction with leading neobanks in the European Union (EU) and the UK, such as Monzo and Juni.
By contrast, more traditional verticals like payments and money transfers, and lending and credit are recording the lowest adoption rates, at 35.7% and 50%, respectively. This gap is likely due to stricter regulatory environments and the influence of established players, the report says.
Improved efficiency and productivity
Across the sector, fintech companies in Portugal that have incorporated AI into their product or service most commonly reported the creation of new products (45.3%) as the leading impact. This underscores the role of AI as a catalyst for innovation within fintech.
Portuguese fintech companies using AI also reported increased profitability (24.5%), and increased sales (20.9%), reflecting the potential of AI to drive both efficiency and revenue growth.
These benefits are also evident in internal operations. Nearly half of respondents (48%) cited increased profitability as the main outcome of integrating AI into internal processes. Additionally, 23.5% reported reduced structural costs, and 14.3% indicated a reduction of the size of the team, reflecting notable gains in efficiency and productivity.
The rise of agentic commerce
The report also highlights major fintech trends for 2025 and 2026, including the rise of agentic commerce.
Agentic commerce refers to the use of autonomous AI agents that can act on behalf of customers or businesses. These AI agents are designed to find, compare, and potentially make purchases for customers based on their needs and preferences, aiming to enhance customer experience, convenience, and efficiency.
Until now, AI agents have largely been limited to browsing and suggest things, but they have not been able to actually pay for items. This is mainly because there were not connected to secure and trusted payment systems.
To fill this gap, Visa has created Visa Intelligent Commerce, offering a suite of tools and protections to support agentic commerce and enable AI-driven purchases through Visa’s payment network. These tools include tokenized “AI-ready” payment credentials, APIs for authentication, transaction controls, and lifecycle management, personalization and consent-driven data sharing, as well as fraud preventions and security features.
The rise to legitimacy of stablecoins
Besides AI and agentic commerce, the report highlights the increasing relevance of stablecoins. According to Diogo Monica, co-founder of crypto company Anchorage Digital and General Partner at Haun Ventures, these digital currencies are steadily evolving from niche crypto tools into a legitimate, programmable, and borderless form of money designed for global scale.
Monica identifies three corporate use cases of stablecoins that are already thriving: pay-ins, pay-outs, and treasury management. Historically, international payments could take several days and required multiple banks and intermediaries, which made them slow and expense. With stablecoins, these payments can now happen almost instantly and with much lower fees.
On the consumer side, the biggest product-market fit for stablecoins lies in protecting consumers’ savings and preserving value. This is especially true in countries like Argentina and Turkey where inflation averaged 117.8% and 58.51% in 2024, respectively.
Fintech in Portugal
The report also gives an overview of the fintech ecosystem in Portugal, outlining key players, market dynamics, and funding trends among Portugal Fintech’s members.
According to the report, more than 90 fintech companies are now part of the trade group, with insurtech being the most represented vertical (17%), followed by lending and credit (12.2%), and payments and money transfers (12.2%).
Most of Portugal Fintech members are homegrown (73.9%), with the UK being the second-most represented jurisdiction (8.7%), followed by France (2.6%) and Spain (2.6%).
Collectively, these companies have secured nearly EUR 1.2 billion (US$1.4 billion) in funding to date, reflecting investor confidence. In 2025, 22.6% of them have raised capital, indicating continued momentum in the sector.
Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Switzerland, based on image by farknot via Freepik
