AI makes prototyping easier, but shipping something useful still takes a team. Lessons from our tech team’s PredictPay journey:
- Give ideas a path to production
- Bring every discipline in early
- Make progress testable
- Improve the model and system together
AI makes building easier. Turning an idea into a production system and improving it still takes a strong team working closely together.
PredictPay, our in-house payment risk model, went from “would be cool if it works” to “it works, and it works really well” through demos, thoughtful scoping, AI & ML explainability, production experiments, and many iterations. We’re sharing the full zero-to-v2 journey in the hope that it inspires more people to bring forward an idea and find great people to build it with.
Proud to share the journey with Kyle Gahagan, Skylar Gao, Ross Briden, Patrick Holloran, Fabio Sammarco and everyone across Engineering, Analytics, and Product @affirm who made it possible!
tech.affirm.com/predictpay-f…
In her first year in Affirm’s Early Career Program, Claire Yang found that AI helped her build faster, but she wanted to ensure she was still developing scalable engineering judgement. She writes candidly about finding the balance: medium.com/affirmengineering…
Finance runs on tables, but AI still struggles to read them.
Our ML engineers built an interactive tutorial on how foundation models handle tabular data, and it's been accepted to the #NeurIPS2026 Education Track.
Explore it: github.com/Affirm/tabular-fo…

ALT Sure, here is a possible alt text: "Event announcement image with logos for 'Affirm' and 'NeurIPS'. Text reads: 'An interactive guide to tabular foundation models, Sydney, Australia, December 2026.' A photo labeled 'Jiarui Xu, Senior Manager, Machine Learning Engineering at Affirm' is on the right side.
"The grownup way to buy things that matter to you." That's how @mlevchin describes Affirm and what led to our new partnership with @CrateandBarrel. Watch on @FoxBusiness with @LizClaman: foxbusiness.com/video/640592…
Affirm gave up the highest margins in payments on purpose. @mlevchin and @arampell get into why on the @a16z podcast: youtube.com/watch?v=J3pegsM5…
Affirm's new transformer-based underwriting model is live at U.S. checkout. It learns patterns within and across credit accounts over time, providing a clearer read on a person's history and on what they can responsibly repay. bit.ly/4xoiCfH
Affirm was built to be your "smarter older sister," helping people make better decisions. @mlevchin on @semafor's The CEO Signal with @PennyPritzker & @Edgecliffe.
semafor.com/article/07/30/20…
“It’s not you. The system is built to be confusing," - @mlevchin via @RichHabitsPod
Our Founder & CEO spoke w/ @austinhankwitz & @realrobertcroak about agentic commerce, the future of finance & Max’s one piece of advice for consumers.
bit.ly/4xHZryZ
"If you tell an entrepreneur over and over again, 'This thing will never work unless someone does X,' the natural response is, 'Well, I will do X and see if it works.'"
Affirm’s @mlevchin w/ @tferriss on the books, lessons, and ideas that shaped him.
bit.ly/4oiYiK1
From refugee to entrepreneur, @mlevchin reflects on the experiences and principles that have shaped his career in @CNBC's America: 250 Years Bold series.
bit.ly/4xnX6Ju
“This is by far the best time in history to run a company as an engineer.”
@mlevchin sat down with @BrianSozzi on @YahooFinance's Power Players to break down engineering-led companies, the future of AI, authentic communication, and more.👇
bit.ly/4xibLWy
"I challenge any lender, any bank, any financial services provider, to have the degree of … love" that consumers show Affirm. — Our founder and CEO @mlevchin on @MiguelArmaza's Fintech Leaders podcast.
🎧 bit.ly/4dK1R6P
ICYMI: Watch Affirm's Investor Forum 2026 replay, where Affirm's leadership deep dive into where we've been and where we're headed. bit.ly/3P5AxYL
Live today: The Affirm Investor Forum. Tune in at 2 p.m. ET to hear directly from leadership on what's driving the business forward. Watch here: bit.ly/4u2KANm
The world is moving toward Affirm. Tomorrow, stream our Investor Forum for a closer look at what’s next for the business. Tune in at 2 p.m. ET here: bit.ly/4u2KANm
Affirm’s The Big Nothing is your reason to finally hit 'buy' on the thing that's been sitting in your cart. 0% APR options. No hidden fees. Coming May 13-15. #TheBigNothing 👉 bit.ly/48wm8eC
Subject to Eligibility. See terms at affirm.com/disclosures.
"We are focused on being a better provider of credit, and being a better provider of payments, to as wide of a range of consumers as possible, across as many surfaces as possible."
More from Affirm’s Libor Michalek in convo w/ @karenmpd for @pymnts: bit.ly/3QPv1tz
Affirm + @ExpediaGroup are tackling a travel pain point: the hesitation before “book now.” We call it the Trip Yips. See how we’re helping would-be travelers turn uncertainty into action: bit.ly/4coPj5F
Terms apply.
“The net IQ of the world is about to go up like 50 points…”
@mlevchin breaks down why with @MollySOShea. Tune in to explore the history of credit, what it takes to start a successful company, and Max’s hot take on the future of AI. 👇
BREAKING: Max Levchin (@mlevchin), Co-Founder of PayPal & CEO of @Affirm — HQ Tour
A Masterclass in: Espressos → Big Lebowski → PayPal lessons → Affirm → Economics of AI
The Dude abides.
“The net IQ of the world Is about to go up 50 points”
Result: As intelligence becomes normalized, bad actors & "fine print" companies will get exposed faster.
We cover:
• Capitalism vs the “warm embrace” of socialism
• You can’t perfectly time an IPO
• The best time ever to be a CS CEO
• AI collapsing the cost of intelligence
• Great economic shift underway
Strikes & gutters, ups & downs.
Recorded at Affirm HQ, March 30, 2026
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Max Levchin, Co-Founder & CEO at Affirm
(01:35) Inside Affirm's office espresso bar
(06:46) How the love for espressos started at age 5
(10:30) Truth about bad coffee beans
(13:51) Strava & cycling
(14:56) Meeting Alfred Lin & Tony Hsieh over poker
(21:14) Onboarding 800K Shopify merchants in one week
(22:59) Big Lebowski in every shareholder letter
(32:11) The PayPal lesson that built Affirm
(35:25) Being a technical CEO
(37:57) Why this is the best time to be a technical CEO
(42:10) Should engineers still learn to code?
(44:48) Side quest with AI
(46:59) Companies AI will destroy
(49:46) How AI has changed engineering at Affirm
(50:54) Agentic commerce & DoorDash
(52:28) Devolution of Credit
(55:06) Biggest misconceptions about BNPL
(57:42) Being a public company CEO
(01:07:01) Advice for private companies
(01:11:09) Creating his own economy
(01:14:29) Can AI help solve the $39T debt problem?
(01:16:00) Learnings
(01:17:46) Will average IQ rise or fall?








