EXCLUSIVE – American Express will be investing in its networks as one of its four major strategic priorities for 2018 as a way for the credit card company to adapt to the growing prominence of digital payments.

“As the payments industry continues to evolve with more types of transactions being processed electronically such as cross border payments and non-card transactions, we need to ensure our network can process different types of transactions,” Doug Buckminster Group President, Global Consumer Services of Amex, said at the company’s Investor Day earlier this week.

As a part of this plan, American Express will invest in innovation that will improve its networks’ “flexibility and agility,” he said. Some of the technologies behind this innovation includes blockchain technology and use of big data, to name a few.

Improving the flexibility of its existing networks also includes enabling more business partners and merchants to plug into its American Express Pay mobile network. But while respecting customer preferences for other mobile payments such as Google Pay and Apple Pay, as Buckmister pointed out.

“Networks are displacing cash,” Steve Squeri, Amex’s chairman and CEO, said, “and I view this as a positive development: WeChat, AliPay, Zelle. We’re seeing more and more entrance in this space and this trend will only continue as consumers and businesses get even more confident doing business electronically.”

Another major strategic priority for Amex, Squeri said is playing a more central role in the digital lives of its consumers. This entails partnerships, cobranding, and more mobile offerings as well as creative ways of digitalizing the card member experience for various customers based on their demography (insert: millennials).

The company will look for new technologies through organic growth, acquisitions as well as partnering with fintechs on emerging technologies.

“We view technology disruption as an opportunity,” Squeri said.

Check out the entire presentation here.