PCI Security Standards Council Celebrates 20 Years, Brings North America Community Meeting to Vancouver

As AI reshapes the payments landscape, industry leaders will gather in Vancouver in September to shape the future of payment security in North America

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA, August 31, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) will mark two decades of shaping global payment security when its North America Community Meeting comes to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from 15-17 September 2026. Centered around the theme of “Celebrating 20 Years of Progress – and Shaping the Future of Payment Security,” the event brings together banks, retailers, payment service providers, assessors, technology providers and security professionals from across North America and beyond. It arrives at a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping payments globally, creating new opportunities even as it introduces threats that demand new defenses.

Payment fraud and cybercrime continue to exist and evolve, fueled in part by AI, which is increasingly being used to identify vulnerabilities, automate attacks, and scale fraud at a speed that leaves traditional defenses struggling to keep up. In an industry where consumer confidence is everything, closing that gap is not optional, and the Community Meeting will see North America’s payment security community come together to tackle this challenge head-on.

Twenty years of progress, one new chapter

The PCI SSC was established in 2006 with a clear mandate: to give the global payments industry the standards it needed to protect cardholder data. Two decades on, that mandate has only grown more urgent. This year’s North America Community Meeting marks the anniversary with an agenda built around the most pressing question facing the industry today: how do you secure a payments ecosystem that is becoming faster, more automated, and more interconnected by the day, without losing the trust that underpins it?

Among the sessions delegates can expect:

- Celebrating 20 years of advancing payment security: honoring the milestones that have defined global payment security and the road ahead.

- AI and compliance: exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on cybersecurity posture, compliance frameworks, and emerging threats.

- Emerging threats and future security challenges: understanding the evolving risk landscape and practical strategies to stay ahead.

- PCI DSS implementation and continuous compliance: practical guidance to turn compliance into an ongoing operational discipline rather than a point-in-time exercise.

- Bridging compliance and effective security: moving beyond checkbox compliance to build genuinely resilient payment environments.

- The future of payments, trust, and innovation: exploring where payments are headed and what that means for security professionals and their organizations.

- Insights from cybersecurity experts and security architects: direct perspectives on combating fraud and cybercrime at scale.

Delegates will also have the opportunity to join pre-conference workshops on 15 September, including “From Prompt to Payment: Attack Surfaces in Agentic Payment Flows” and “Human versus AI Agent – Do PCI DSS requirements apply differently?” (including a dedicated Qualified Security Assessor (QSA)-only session).

The full program also covers the payment infrastructure ecosystem, emerging attacks, and innovative global security management strategies.

Keynote: Sharon Gai

Headlining this year’s event is Sharon Gai, AI expert, author of AI and ecommerce works, prominent keynote speaker, and retail innovation leader. A global expert in e-commerce, digital strategy, and cross-cultural innovation, Sharon spent nearly a decade at Alibaba, where she guided international brands through China’s dynamic digital marketplace. She now advises organizations across North America and beyond on innovation, AI adoption, and building resilient strategies in an evolving economy.

Returning from her well-received debut at the Asia-Pacific Community Meeting in 2025, Sharon’s North America Community Meeting keynote for 2026 “The Future Consumer: Navigating the Age of Hyper-Personalization, AI, and Invisible Payments,” will explore how agentic technologies are reshaping retail and what the next chapter of modern commerce demands from today’s brands.

20 years of celebration

“Reaching 20 years is a milestone worth celebrating, but more than that, it is a moment for resolve,” said Gina Gobeyn, Executive Director, PCI SSC. “When PCI SSC was founded, none of us could have predicted a world where AI agents initiate payments, navigate checkout flows and make financial decisions on behalf of consumers. That is an extraordinary evolution, and it demands extraordinary vigilance to maintain the trust between merchant and customer. The North America Community Meeting brings together the people and the perspectives that will shape the industry’s response to not just to the threats of today, but to the opportunities of the next 20 years. We are proud to convene that conversation.”

Emma Arora
Cognito
pcisecuritystandards@cognitomedia.com
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