SEAA 2025: What We Took Away (And What’s Next)

That’s a wrap on SEAA 2025  and Worth showed up the way we always do: focused, fired up and ready to talk real solutions.

Held in our own backyard this year (Orlando!), SEAA brought together the heavy hitters of the payments industry (processors, ISOs, credit cards, fintechs and compliance leaders) all under one roof. But the real focus of SEAA was speed, automation and smarter workflows for the small businesses that power the economy. That’s our lane, and we were proud to be part of it.

What We Saw

Across the floor and in every session, the same themes kept coming up:

• Onboarding still takes too long.
• Underwriting is still too manual.
• Legacy systems are still slowing everyone down.

This is not only a big frustration, but it’s also a revenue problem. At Worth, we’re building to solve it. We help teams reduce abandonment, accelerate approvals and make KYB/KYC frictionless. And at SEAA, it was clear we’re not alone in that mission.

What Stood Out

Our team was particularly excited to attend two of the offered sessions, and the insights they provided did not disappoint.

Innovate or Fall Behind: The Future of SMB Payment Solutions

Visa’s session, led by Jacob Muff of Authorize.net, gave a sharp look at how the platform is evolving to meet the demands of SMBs with AI-integrated tools, modular services, and a redesigned interface. From payment efficiency to risk management, the session focused on scalable, smarter solutions for SMBs and the acquirers who serve them. It echoed a lot of what we’re building at Worth, and reinforced how critical automation and usability have become in this space.

AI: From Theory to Practice

Cygnus Payments weren’t throwing around buzzwords during their panel. It was a practical, focused look at where AI is actually being applied within SMB operations like anomaly detection in portfolio management.

Worth is already leveraging it across our platform. Real-time KYB, risk monitoring and document automation are essential to easing the SMB experience especially during onboarding. We appreciated hearing others push past the hype and talk about what real automation means in the industry.

What we took away

SEAA made one thing crystal clear: the payments industry is undergoing a full-on infrastructure shift. For years, ISOs and acquirers focused on terminals, hardware and transaction volume. Now, software is the strategy. And if your tools can’t scale, automate or integrate, you’ll likely fall behind.

One of the most striking takeaways was that software is becoming the new ISO. More than 50 percent of the SEAA exhibitor hall was made up of POS or SaaS providers, not processors. 

As payments companies look for stickier revenue and better margins, they’re moving away from reselling hardware and toward owning the customer relationship through smarter, integrated tools. This represents part of a larger shift away from clunky terminals and toward streamlined workflows.

ISOs and acquirers looking to keep pace need to meet merchants where they are: expecting fast, digital-first, fully automated experiences. That means consolidating processes, integrating smarter risk tools and turning underwriting into a business driver. At Worth, we’ve been building toward this shift from day one. We bake automation into every part of onboarding and underwriting.

SEAA 2025 attendance hit new highs, sessions were packed and the positive buzz around software was everywhere. We left even more confident in our prediction that the next wave of growth won’t come from more terminals or lower fees. It’ll come from platforms that reduce friction, move faster and actually work for modern merchants.

Booth 131 (and Beyond)

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our table. Whether you came for a demo, a fan (yes, we brought hand fans to beat the Florida heat), or just some good old-fashioned networking, we were glad to meet you. We had great conversations about frictionless underwriting, faster approvals and how automation should actually work.

We also want to shout out everyone who joined us for Worth Every Swing at Hawk’s Landing. Perfect weather, good company, and a well-earned break from the conference floor (exactly the kind of offsite we love).

If you didn’t get a chance to join us on the green, connect with us to learn more about Worth’s next exclusive event.

(And don’t forget to check out our event gallery!)

What’s Next: See You at MWAA

We’re heading to MWAA in Chicago this July 30–31, and we’re bringing the same energy. Different city, same mission: helping payments teams onboard SMBs faster, underwrite smarter and stop losing revenue to outdated processes.

MWAA has always been a key stop on the circuit, and we’re looking forward to connecting with operators, ISOs and fintech leaders who are building what’s next.

If you’ll be there, let’s talk. If you won’t, we should still talk!

See you in Chicago!