The digital payments market will reach a value of 475 billion euros by the end of the year, growing by 9 percent compared to 2023. This is the estimate of the Politecnico di Milano, which in its Innovative Payments Observatory has taken stock of the first six months of 2024, highlighting the strong push of proximity payments with smartphones and wearables (wearable objects), which have reached a value of €20 billion (+58%). Payments with smartphones and wearables are not only making gains in the overall market, but are also cannibalizing more traditional payment methods. This is a trend that is set to continue thanks to new tools coming to market, such as rings equipped with near field communication (NFC) technology. New technologies, and more specifically Artificial Intelligence, are playing an important role in the growing diffusion of increasingly innovative payment instruments. In the first six months of the year, card transactions in Italy stood at 223 billion euros (+8.6% over 2023) and the number of payments increased by 15.6% to €5.2 billion. As a result, the amount of the average receipt decreased significantly (from €45.50 last year to the current €42.80), reflecting the increasing use of card payments even for smaller purchases.