IBM is probably not the name you expected to see in front of the latest’Pay,’ but Big Blue is indeed wading into mobile payments. The newest form of mobile payment was introduced yesterday at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, and its selling point does not seem to be convenience so much as discounts and loyalty. This is tricky to accomplish, and IBM doesn’t make phones — an iPhone is shown in the video below — so its take is a bit different than Apple’s or Google’s. Also part of the solution is Watson, IBM’s proprietary cognitive system, or if you prefer, artificial intelligence. Does Watson find the best deals? Or know which card to use?

It’s unclear. In any case, the system lets merchants “integrate branded mobile payments on any channel with your existing loyalty and rewards programs.”