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Saudi Digital Payments Reach 80% As Cash Use Shrinks
Visa data shows cards and mobile wallets dominate spending, with smartphones now driving a growing share of daily transactions.
Digital payments now account for 80% of all transactions in Saudi Arabia, according to Visa’s latest Where Cash Hides report, another marker of how quickly the Kingdom is moving away from cash.
The share is up four percentage points from a year ago. Around 67% of consumers are now largely non-cash users, paying mainly with cards or mobile wallets. Smartphones are taking a bigger role, with mobile payments making up 16% of transactions.
Cash is retreating in routine spending. Eating out dropped 9%. Bill payments fell 8%, as shoppers opt for faster checkouts and app-based payments.
“The data shows a steady move toward digital payments in Saudi Arabia. Such progress is possible only because banks, fintechs, merchants, and technology partners are moving together in the same direction, in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” said Ali Bailoun, Visa’s Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Oman.
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Despite the recent findings, it’s important to note that cash hasn’t yet disappeared. It still shows up for tips (39%), peer-to-peer transfers (28%) and rent (14%).
Visa points to security features such as tokenization, along with rewards and cashback, as factors nudging more spending onto cards and phones — a shift that tracks with Saudi Arabia’s wider Vision 2030 push to digitize commerce.
News
Deezer Says AI Tracks Now Make Up 44% Of Uploads
The streamer says nearly 75,000 AI-made songs now hit its platform each day, even as those tracks account for just 1% to 3% of plays.
AI-generated music is becoming a real headache for music platforms, according to Deezer. The streaming service says it now receives nearly 75,000 AI-made tracks a day, equal to about 44% of all daily uploads to the platform.
The figure is up sharply from 10,000 daily AI uploads when Deezer launched its detection tool back in January 2025. The jump shows how quickly products such as Suno and Udio have made song creation cheap, fast, and easy to scale.
Despite the volume, Deezer says AI tracks still only account for 1% to 3% of total streams. The music gets few human listeners, but upload pressure is rising. The company says it is also seeing more “fraudulent” submissions.
Its response so far has been practical. Deezer has removed AI-generated songs from recommendation systems, demonetized them, and stopped storing high-resolution versions of those files.
The company also says it’s the only streaming platform currently tagging AI-generated tracks at scale, using that claim to position its moderation tools as a wider industry model.
“AI-generated music is now far from a marginal phenomenon and as daily deliveries keep increasing, we hope the whole music ecosystem will join us in taking action to help safeguard artist’s rights and promote transparency for fans,” CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a blog post.
Deezer has started licensing the detection technology to other companies, turning an internal control system into a commercial product. It says the tool can already identify music created with Suno and Udio, and can be extended to other generators if training data is available.
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The company is also working on detection methods that would not require training datasets, a harder technical step that could widen coverage as new music models appear.
Rivals are taking mixed approaches. Spotify has rolled out policies aimed at curbing AI music. Apple Music is asking artists and labels to disclose AI-made tracks. Qobuz has begun automated labeling, while Bandcamp has banned AI music outright.
For now, Deezer’s numbers suggest the real issue is not listener demand. It’s supply.
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