(C) NCFA Canada

LAS VEGAS – The act of pulling out a credit card at a gas station or a drive-thru is fast becoming a relic of the past. At CES 2026, the boundary between transportation, wearable devices, and financial infrastructure has blurred, signaling the arrival of a "Physical AI" era where payment and security are seamlessly integrated into the objects of daily life.

The Rise of V-Commerce and Smart Wearables
U.S.-based startup Shiva.AI captured significant attention by showcasing its "V-Commerce" (Vehicle Commerce) solution. This technology allows a car to recognize a fuel pump or parking meter and execute payments automatically via its internal AI system. A representative from Shiva.AI confirmed that discussions are already underway with major South Korean automakers to implement this technology in upcoming models.

Beyond vehicles, the evolution of wearables was on full display. Indian startup Muse Wearables demonstrated a "Smart Ring" equipped with an integrated payment solution. By simply tapping the ring on a transit terminal, users can pay subway fares instantly. This shift suggests that the smartphone, once the hub of digital payments, is now sharing its role with an array of "smart objects."

Biometrics and the End of Manual Verification
Security is also moving toward a password-less, biometric-centric model. South Korean startup Ghost Pass received a CES 2026 Innovation Award for its iris-recognition payment system designed for convenience stores and supermarkets. When a customer looks at a screen, the system verifies their identity and age simultaneously by linking to encrypted data stored on their smartphone. This technology is expected to accelerate the proliferation of unmanned stores, as it can autonomously prevent the sale of age-restricted items like alcohol and tobacco.

Next-Generation Security: Quantum Protection and Liveness Detection
As AI permeates every industry, the infrastructure protecting personal data has become more sophisticated. Samsung Electronics unveiled its latest security semiconductor, the S3SSE2A. This chip is the first to implement Quantum-Resistant Cryptography (PQC) directly into hardware, rather than relying on software. According to Samsung, this dedicated chip can generate secure keys 17 times faster than previous methods, providing a robust defense against potential quantum-scale hacking attacks.

In the realm of identity verification, Israel's Validat.AI introduced a groundbreaking camera-based technology that distinguishes real humans from deepfakes by measuring heart rates. By detecting minute changes in blood flow on a person's face through visual data alone, the system ensures that remote financial transactions or government registrations are conducted by live individuals, effectively neutralizing AI-generated fraud.

The Infrastructure of Trust
Other notable innovations included Secure-IC’s "Securizer" chip, designed to protect cryptographic keys and payment authorizations within connected vehicles, and Touch Biometrics B.V. from the Netherlands, which utilized display manufacturing technology to create a fingerprint sensor that works across any part of a device's screen.

The overarching theme of CES 2026's payment and security sector is clear: AI is no longer confined to the digital cloud. It has become "physical," embedded in the chips, cars, and rings that define the modern human experience, ensuring that convenience is matched by ironclad security.