Palantir and Bolt Collaborate on AI-Powered Checkout 2.0, Raising Privacy Concerns

Palantir Partners With Former Fintech Darling Bolt for AI Checkout

Palantir Technologies Inc., the data analytics firm co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, is partnering with one-click checkout platform Bolt Financial Inc. to offer a payments process enhanced by artificial intelligence. The startup plans to offer consumers a personalized checkout experience by leveraging Palantir's software and data analysis, according to a statement from Bolt. The feature will present people with their preferred payment method, in addition to remembering their shopping preferences and making suggestions for additional items to buy.

Why Bolt Is Embracing Palantir for Its New Checkout Tech

Bolt, the fintech firm known for one-click payment technology, is revamping its flagship offering with AI co-developed by Palantir. The product, called Checkpoint 2.0, will generate online payment experiences based on shoppers' digital payment and browsing habits. The company hailed it as "a new era of intelligent ecommerce checkout" in an announcement last week. The rollout was made possible thanks to Bolt's partnership with Palantir, a long-time government contractor that works with various U.S. government agencies, commercial clients, as well as foreign countries like Israel, Ukraine, and the U.K. Bolt's unveiling of a consumer-facing tool co-developed by Palantir may strike a nerve among privacy-conscious consumers. Last month, a group of former Palantir employees wrote an open letter criticizing what they deemed to be an abandonment of the company's original mission "to prevent discrimination, disinformation, and abuses of power." In April, Palantir received $30 million from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to develop a tool that would assist the Trump administration's efforts to deport immigrants. Ryan Breslow, Bolt's co-founder and CEO, tells Inc. that Checkout 2.0 is the result of a "deep partnership" with Palantir.

Bolt and Palantir usher in new era of intelligent e-commerce at the checkout

This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. Checkout 2.0, a self-learning, self-improving checkout, replaces today's static, form-based flows with an adaptive, real-time system that responds to each shopper's unique preferences, behaviors and context. Rather than displaying the same interface to every shopper, Checkout 2.0 delivers personalized flows that evolve with the user -- prioritizing preferred payment methods, remembering prior selections and surfacing relevant information at just the right time. "Operational integration of Bolt and Palantir reduces friction for shoppers and complexity for merchants while providing a foundation to accelerate retail into the age of AI," said Ted Mabrey, Palantir's Global Head of Commercial. "This partnership brings together the scale and shopper intelligence of Bolt's platform with Palantir's proven decisioning systems to deliver superior outcomes across every transaction. Checkout 2.0 represents the best of both worlds -- and the future of commerce personalization." Bolt will leverage Palantir's platform to help scale Checkout 2.0 across enterprise retailers and expand it within Bolt's recently launched SuperApp -- an all-in-one finance and crypto hub that delivers real-time shopper signals. As both platforms evolve, Checkout 2.0 will bring deeper personalization and intelligence to every phase of the buying journey. "Our partnership with Palantir addresses one of the biggest challenges in modern commerce: turning mountains of shopper data into real-time, actionable intelligence," said Ryan Breslow, Founder & CEO of Bolt. "Together, we're tackling outdated, one-size-fits-all checkout experiences and replacing them with a smarter, more adaptive flow that actually responds to individual preferences and behavior. Merchants gain powerful optimization tools to improve conversion and payment efficiency, while shoppers benefit from a faster, more personalized journey. This is not just an upgrade -- it's a reimagining of what online checkout can be." Over the last decade, Bolt has accumulated a wealth of intelligence regarding shopper behavior and preferences from its Universal Shopper Network of more than 80 million U.S. shoppers. Through this partnership, Bolt will integrate Palantir's advanced decisioning engine to dynamically adapt checkout flows and enable smarter, contextually aware logic. For example, a shopper who frequently buys beauty products on their mobile device and prefers Apple Pay will see a checkout flow that automatically prioritizes Apple Pay, highlights relevant upsells and surfaces loyalty features -- without requiring them to re-enter information or navigate away. These adaptive experiences are designed to eliminate friction and boost conversion. Merchants will also benefit from intelligent post-checkout payment routing. Checkout 2.0 will evaluate transaction attributes -- such as volume, category or geography -- and select the optimal payment gateway to maximize authorization rates and reduce processing costs. This behind-the-scenes intelligence delivers better margins and a smoother experience. Checkout 2.0's architecture includes: Self-learning shopper profiles that adapt over time based on usage, behavior and purchase history. Dynamic payment method reordering based on shopper preferences and device. Post-checkout routing optimization to improve processing economics in real time. Native crypto payment support, reinforcing Bolt's commitment to flexibility and future-facing payment infrastructure.