The customer experience industry will become a $5 trillion market by 2030, according to Netomi founder and CEO Puneet Mehta, who says growth will create demand for stablecoins and blockchain-based payment infrastructure rather than drawing capital away from crypto.
Mehta said companies currently spend about $500 billion annually on customer experience-related knowledge work. As AI expands beyond customer support to sales, conversion, upselling and cross-selling, he expects the market opportunity to grow tenfold by 2030.
“The customer experience today is structured like a silo,” Mehta said. “That layer of technology and people doesn’t fully speak to every system and every process independently in the business. Once that starts to happen, it unlocks a much larger category.”
Mehta, whose company recently raised $110 million in a Series C round backed by Accenture Ventures and Adobe Ventures, argues that the rise of artificial intelligence and crypto should be seen as complementary trends rather than competing sectors.
“The idea that AI is simply sucking capital away from crypto is a fundamental misunderstanding of where the technology is going,” said Mehta, who previously worked as an engineer and data scientist at IBM and later held similar roles at JPMorgan, Citi and Merrill Lynch. “We’re not in a zero-sum battle for venture dollars.”
Mehta’s view that AI agents will require faster financial infrastructure aligns with a growing argument among crypto executives that autonomous software could become a key driver of stablecoin adoption.
Fiat-linked cryptocurrencies are entering a new adoption phase, with large corporations using them for cross-border financial flows while AI agents begin using blockchain rails for autonomous payments, Bridge and Deus X Capital executives said recently at Consensus 2026. In April, Chainalysis said stablecoins found are on track to become a global financing project. 719 trillion dollars in 2035
AI that enables crypto
The next phase of enterprise software will rely on autonomous AI agents capable of handling increasingly complex business functions, including financial transactions, according to Mehta.
“AI agents are moving money and assets faster than legacy companies can keep up,” he said. “A self-employed agent cannot rely on traditional banking systems that take days to complete transactions via manual paperwork.”
Mehta argues that fully automated software systems require two key components: AI systems capable of making decisions and blockchain payment infrastructure capable of moving money instantly.
“To achieve true end-to-end automation, these software systems require always-on capital rails that operate 24/7,” he said.
This requirement may create greater demand for stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement networks that operate around the clock (24/7). Stablecoin issuers and crypto-payment companies have increasingly positioned their products as tools for real-time settlement and cross-border transactions.
Still, many enterprise software companies remain dependent on traditional payment providers and banking networks, and it remains unclear how quickly blockchain-based settlement systems will become a standard component of AI-powered commerce.
Unicorn status
Netomi’s latest raise brings its total funding to $168 million. Mehta declined to disclose the company’s valuation, but said the company is approaching unicorn status.
Netomi, whose clients include global giants such as Delta, United Airlines, MetLife, ESPN and ATB Financial, is building a unified AI platform rather than a collection of disconnected tools, he said.
While many enterprise AI providers focus on individual functions such as customer service, legal operations or sales support, he explained, Netomi builds systems that work across those functions and share information between them.
“Most companies are building point solutions,” Mehta said. “They solve one problem at a time. We believe the future is a connected enterprise, where AI systems do not operate in silos, but work together across the entire organization.”
UPDATE (June 10, 17:10 UTC): Adds section on Netomi approaching unicorn status.
