Stop Worshipping the Rails: Start Designing for Intent

The most difficult problems in B2B payments are not about technology. They are about people.

We often build for the rules of the system rather than the instincts of the user.

We optimize for compliance instead of for confidence.

The tools work, but they work too visibly.

What does this mean?

They call attention to themselves, distracting from the user's real goal: to complete an exchange of value and get back to work.

If commerce is an act of trust between two parties, a payment is the handshake that finalizes it.

We've taken this handshake and made it mechanical.

A series of buttons, approvals, and steps. We preserved the function but lost the fluidity.

The goal is to restore the handshake—to make it an invisible gesture of agreement.

And this is where modern technology—AI, agentic systems, stablecoins—finds its true purpose: not as the main character, but as a quiet, powerful servant to human intent.

Its role is to make global commerce simpler, safer, and more fluid, but the transaction itself remains, at its heart, a human agreement.

The Invisible Handshake

When you shake someone's hand, you don't think about the anatomy involved.

You simply connect.

The complexity collapses into a simple, human moment.

This is what payments should be. The aim is not merely automation for speed, but the seamless conversion of complexity into trust.

A system works so well that you stop noticing it, allowing you to focus on the outcome you wanted all along.

“Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.” — Frank Lloyd Wright

The question, then, is not just how to make payments better.

It is how to make them feel like a direct extension of your intent.

The People in the Process

To build a system people want to use, you must understand who they are. Not their title, but their motivation.

In B2B payments, users reveal themselves through patterns of behavior. These are archetypes of intent.

There are four we see most often in our work with payment leaders globally.

Each has a different relationship with control, information, and risk.

1. The Ruler: Chloé, CFO of a Renewable Energy Startup

The Ruler wants sovereignty. Chloé doesn’t want to manage every detail; she needs a system she can trust to manage it for her.

A powerful system for her is not one with endless options, but one that makes the right decisions automatically.

For Chloé, this looks like:

• An AI-powered treasury agent that automatically executes payments to take early payment discounts, and holds cash until the last possible second to optimize working capital.
• Agentic workflows that handle 95% of invoice approvals based on pre-set rules, routing only true exceptions to her.
• A system that seamlessly uses stablecoins for instant, final settlement with key international parts suppliers, eliminating FX friction without her having to become a crypto expert.

The technology serves her need for calm control.

It acts not as a advisor, but as a reliable delegate.

The Playbook: Build systems that convert complexity into calm.

Design for delegated trust, where control feels effortless because the underlying mechanics are sound.

2. The Sage: Ben, Head of FP&A at a Scaling SaaS Company

The Sage seeks understanding. Ben doesn’t want more data; he wants clarity.

The line between his confidence and confusion is not drawn by the amount of information, but by its meaning.

For Ben, this looks like:

• A payments platform that uses AI to synthesize data from across all payment rails, visually highlighting that "cloud hosting costs jumped 30% this month due to user growth in Europe."
• A predictive cash flow agent that doesn't just show a chart, but sends a plain-English alert: "Based on scheduled outflows, your runway will shorten by 45 days unless the Series B closes within the quarter."
• A natural language interface that instantly answers his query: "What were our total marketing agency payments last quarter, across all entities?"

The AI serves Ben by turning data into a coherent narrative, making insight feel intuitive, not extracted.

The Playbook: Design for insight, not just information. Build interfaces that tell a story about the money.

3. The Caregiver: Maria, Chief Compliance Officer at a Regional Bank

The Caregiver's motive is safety. Maria’s priority is not speed, but certainty.

She needs to know that every transaction is correct, compliant, and secure.

For Maria, this looks like:

• A behavioral biometrics system that flags a payment because the login and payment patterns deviate from the norm, preventing a potential account takeover.
• AI-driven reconciliation that matches payments to invoices with near-perfect accuracy, presenting a clean, short list of exceptions instead of a mountain of data.
• An immutable audit trail on a distributed ledger, providing a single source of truth for every payment, making regulatory exams a process of verification, not frantic investigation.

The technology serves as a guardian. It creates a resilient environment where safety is felt, not just promised.

The Playbook: Create a guardian environment. Use technology to build felt security, making problems feel unthinkable.

4. The Explorer: Akiko, VP of International Operations for a E-commerce Brand

The Explorer operates at the frontier. Akiko is navigating cross-border expansion into Latin America.

She doesn’t want rigid boundaries; she wants fluidity. Friction is a fundamental drag on her growth.

For Akiko, this looks like:

• A smart routing system that automatically selects the optimal payment method (local ACH, stablecoin, FX-optimized wire) for a supplier in Mexico, based on cost and speed, without her team needing to be payments experts.
• A self-service supplier onboarding portal that uses AI to verify and onboard new partners in hours, not weeks, handling local compliance checks automatically.
• A unified platform that allows her to manage and pay suppliers in a dozen currencies from a single dashboard, with real-time settlement status.

The technology serves Akiko by building bridges.

It handles the complexity of global infrastructure so she can focus on the opportunity.

The Playbook: Build infrastructure that scales trust. Let the system handle the complexity, and the user enjoy the freedom.

The Principle of Orchestration

If these archetypes are the instruments, the platform is the orchestra.

The art is not in making them all play the same note, but in harmonizing their parts.

The system, empowered by AI and modern infrastructure, should act as a conductor—ensuring each user's experience aligns with their intent.

It means adaptive interfaces that provide control to Chloé, clarity to Ben, safety to Maria, and freedom to Akiko, all within the same workflow.

This is not a dashboard. It is orchestration.

A Different Way to Build

Real progress in payments will come from this understanding.

The goal is not to worship the technology—be it AI, blockchain, or stablecoins—but to wield it with purpose.

These are all tools in service of a single, timeless objective: to be the best possible servant to human commerce.

The most powerful payment system won't feel like a powerful tool. It will feel like a quiet agreement.

When a CFO in Chicago pays a builder in Mumbai and feels only the satisfaction of a deal completed, we will know the technology has finally receded into its proper role.

We will know we have started to get it right.

WDIR is trusted by leading financial institutions, banks, and B2B payment stakeholders to design simple, transparent, and secure payment experiences.

Get in touch today!