Today's guests are WorkFusion VP, Head of AI Paul Tepper, and VP of Product Management Tina Chace. WorkFusion is a software company with over $340 million in funding that blends RPA and AI – a process often called intelligent automation – to help businesses digitize their operations. Paul and Tina return to the platform to discuss the applicability of intelligent automation in financial service-driven use cases from media surveillance and customer experience. Together with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, they examine how cutting-edge capabilities in these spaces are refocusing business problems around topics and how they're discussed both outside and inside the organization. This episode is sponsored by WorkFusion. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Intuit Director of Product Management, Accounting ＆ Tax, Michael Hitchcock. Michael’s experience in product development and engineering goes back to his days at GE in the mid-2000s. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Michael overviews the challenges facing both entrepreneurs and accountants in bookkeeping workflows and the ways Quickbooks and other Intuit services have integrated AI capabilities in their platforms to meet those needs. Later, they pull apart the ways AI is personalizing processes and changing the fundamental nature of accounting work. 

Today’s guest is Scott Zoldi, Chief Analytics Officer of FICO. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Scott digs deeper into his writings on the many well-publicized disadvantages of ChatGPT and a few of its under-discussed benefits. Under the backdrop of FICO’s recent report on responsible AI in the financial services space, Scott helps pull apart some promising financial use cases for the technology and cast them under a more sober, discerning spotlight. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Today's guest is Fiddler AI CEO, Krishna Gade. Fiddler AI builds custom monitoring platforms specializing in risk and compliance as well as the lending and trading spaces. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Krishna discusses why machine learning, in particular, is so effective in streamlining surveillance workflows and why financial services compliance is increasingly being geared toward verifying the customer from their introduction to the services funnel. Krishna also talks about the various 'black box' problems in financial services and how his previous experience working on the Facebook newsfeed after the 2016 election informs Fiddler's approach to model transparency. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest on the ‘AI in Financial Services’ podcast is Dr. Lori Cenci, US Head of Unauthorized Trade Surveillance at HSBC and Lecturer of Applied Analytics at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. She has over two decades of experience in risk, compliance, conduct, capital markets, quantitative research, product development, client advisory, consulting, writing, and teaching with such austere financial services brands as HSBC. Dr. Cenci returns to the platform to discuss the challenges in developing a company culture built around analytics. Together with Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel Faggella, she pulls from experiences across her career to advise on best practices for managing the c-suite and developing dashboards that solve real business problems.

Today’s guest is Managing Director at Curinos Sarah Welch. Curinos is a software company specializing in data-based solutions for financial services enterprises. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Sarah discusses how the same AI capabilities banking leaders might be familiar with across customer experience use cases are illuminating business opportunities and solving challenges in the onboarding process. As a greater image of customers and what makes them loyal emerges, Sarah explains how new questions arise from the data, including, “When is marketing’s job done?”. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI, and strategy, visit Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Supreet Kaur, Assistant Vice President at Morgan Stanley. She’s spent the last five years working in data spaces across financial services and life sciences, along with essential advocacy work in mentoring a diverse next generation of data science leaders. In conversation with Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella, Supreet explains to the audience what works and what doesn’t in building effective data governance infrastructure and strategies for financial services organizations. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Today’s guest is the Head of Strategy, InvestCloud (EMEA), Alessandro Tonchia. InvestCloud is an AI-driven communications platform for wealth managers. Before starting there in 2021, Alessandro worked as a Director for smartKYC in London for nearly a decade and founded the digital insurance platform Finatix in the early nineties. On the AI in Financial Services podcast, Alessandro describes the challenges that wealth managers face in providing fully customizable interfacing experiences and visualizations with their clients. He also details InvestCloud’s strategies in developing platforms with a hierarchy between both financial advisors and clients as users. To access Emerj’s non-technical guide for getting started with AI deployment, check out emerj.com/beg1.

Today's guest is Martín Ramírez, Head of Growth at WellSaid, a company specializing in AI-driven voice-over tools. There are surprising use cases for these capabilities across various industries. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello on the 'AI in Financial Services' services podcast, Martín focuses on enterprise applications. From learning and training to supplementing conversational AI, Martín describes what is necessary to return enterprise-wide results from truly transformational use cases. Later, they discuss ways that information must transition from print to digital and, in an increasing number of multimedia workflows, from digital to audio. This episode is sponsored by WellSaid Labs. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Qraft Technologies APAC CEO, Francis Geeseok Oh. Qraft is an emerging invest tech AI solution for investment risk management. Those in the investment space, from retail to big-name Wall Street firms, might have some familiarity with Qraft’s AI Risk Indicator Tool. On their website, the AI-powered platform gives an instantaneous reading on the risk within a market during a given period, all with the fluidity of checking a mobile weather app. On the ‘AI in Financial Services’ podcast, he and Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello discuss overcoming the block box issues therein and where the human element is best delegated in risk management workflows, given the advantages of AI capabilities in these spaces. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is the CEO of Catchlight Insights, Wilbur Swan. Catchlight is a Fidelity-backed and grown AI solution streamlining lead optimization for small and medium-sized financial institutions with a special focus on custom tools built for individual personal financial advisors and realtors. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Wilbur discusses strategies in data visualization and avoiding the all-or-nothing thinking that comes with developing dashboards that show "everything under one umbrella." Later, they pull apart use cases showing the difference AI is making in both individual and institutional lead optimization workflows. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is Vic.ai Co-founder and CEO Alexander Hagerup. Vic.ai is a software as a service that offers full autonomy in accounting workflows, specifically in invoice processing and helping to streamline approval processes in a broad range of financial services sectors. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Alexander explains what AI autonomy can look like and what it takes to remove human beings from the decision-making process in accounting. Later, he pulls apart a number of applicable use cases in the real estate and fintech startup space. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is Christian Van Leeuwen, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of FRISS. His company accrued over $88 million to fund a workforce of 200 employees focused on claims underwriting, investigation, and working with the biggest names in the insurance space. Following his last appearance on the AI in Business podcast, he and Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello pull apart use cases in trust automation. Their conversation reveals how much the insurance space is beginning to resemble banking in terms of the increasing importance of knowing who your customer is from the front door of the insurance policy lifecycle. Plus, how AI is illuminating new business opportunities in commercial insurance given the influx of data emerging from the internet of things. This episode is brought to you by FRISS. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.

Today’s guest is Kelly Harlin, Director of Solutions Marketing and Commercialization at Sharp/NEC. As a manufacturer of computer monitors and large-scale information displays and systems, Sharp/NEC has a front row to how banks collect data - particularly visual - to better ascertain the lifestyle needs of their customers. Why is this information so important to banks? Kelly explains to Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella that the pandemic had a devastating impact on foot traffic to banking branches. There’s been some recovery, but now banks are more interested than ever in knowing why people need their physical branches and how to complement their needs best with digital services. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI and strategy, visit Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Pecan AI CEO and co-founder Dr. Zohar Bronfman. Pecan produces an AI-driven platform designed to drive business value using predictive analytics and proprietary model scoring. In conversation with Emerj CEO and Head of Research Daniel Faggella, Zohar discusses how insurers can use machine learning capabilities to find up- and cross-selling opportunities throughout the episode. Zohar points to particularly actionable steps for business leaders in insurance adjacent spaces in developing scoring optimization systems for upgrading policies, targeting high net-worth customers, and reframing business needs into predictive questions. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Today’s guest is Pardeep Bassi, Global Proposition Leader of Data Science at Willis Towers Watson. He’s also spent the last decade in data science leadership roles for insurance firms. Pardeep returns to the Emerj podcast platform to talk about a rising inflection point with old insurers who have data but don’t know how to use it and startups that don’t have data but are more agile in deploying AI solutions. He and Emerj Head of Research Daniel Faggella also discuss how insurance firms – particularly legacy institutions - can go beyond automation and predictive insights, using AI to find the right questions to ask to understand customers’ risk better. For access to Emerj’s Executive Cheat Sheet on AI in insurance, check out emerj.com/ins1.

Today’s guest is Jay Budzik, Chief Technology Officer of Zest AI. What are the best ways to measure ROI for an early AI project? There are countless ways to answer the question, as virtually every organization working in AI finds the process challenging. Yet Jay and Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella pull apart what it means when the value of differing metrics changes and the best ways to find a proxy. Later, they discuss how best to prepare early AI adoption initiatives before they begin and what “strategic value” means outside immature expectations of financial returns in the first few months. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Today’s guest is Jackson Hull. At the time of recording this interview, Jackson was the COO of OakNorth, but he now serves as the CEO of Elliptic. OakNorth is a financial services unicorn company based in the United Kingdom. In this episode, we explore a topic that is very pertinent to Jackson’s former role: assessing the health of your loan portfolio. Understanding your loan portfolio’s health is an essential skill for executives in the finserv industry, but right now, it is a sticky business and might be a place where artificial intelligence can add value. Jackson provides a high-level strategic perspective on the business and discusses an interesting use-case. To access Emerj’s non-technical guide for getting started with AI deployment, check out emerj.com/beg1.

This week’s guest is Sankar Narayanan, Chief Practice Officer at Fractal. Fractal is a unicorn company focusing on services and solutions in various industries, including financial services. In this episode, we unpack what the post-covid world looks like from a priorities standpoint for financial services leaders. Sankar shares perspectives from across the organizations they’re serving at Fractal and what he’s seeing amongst leaders in the financial services industries. He also addresses questions of funding, more or less critical problems in the industry, where AI might add value, and more. Discover more AI use-cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more - join Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Nirupam Sarkar, VP of Data Science at Fidelity Investments, a legacy financial institution that presides over about $4.5 trillion in assets under management. In today’s episode, Nirupam discusses two workflows with broad applications across regulation-heavy industries. He also details use-cases involving summarization in wealth management and categorization in mutual funds. Nirupam also shares his thoughts on the future of leveraging and framing information to the essentials of decision-making at the highest levels of wealth management. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from the insights in this episode, consider leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Our guest on today's episode of the AI in Financial Services podcast is Managing Director for Render at Fintern Jonathan Mascie-Taylor. Jonathan and Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella discuss his experience in product launches and how lenders, in particular, can approach AI adoption to enhance the process. Jonathan also explains in-depth strategies for identifying main value propositions and turning lenders into B2b sales. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI and strategy, visit Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1. 

In today’s episode, we’re talking about becoming data-driven in financial services. Our guest is Tanvi Singh. At the time of this recording, she was wrapping up nearly eight years with Credit Suisse, most recently as Managing Director of Digital Transformation and Product Labs. She is now the Group Head of the ADA Foundations Hub at UBS. There are two critical takeaways from this episode. The first is a view of the world of data and the future of financial services where data can be leveraged for AI value, drive value for customers, and operational efficiencies. The second half of the episode is about building that robust data mesh and becoming data-driven in a way that also sees a near-term value. Tanvi paints a picture of how to bear both near-team value and long-term value in mind and the long lumbering path from where banks are today to a place of real digital fluency.

Today we are discussing the topic of anti-money laundering, a primary regulatory concern for financial services organizations. Our guest is Dr. Scott Nowson, Artificial Intelligence Leader at PwC. PwC is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. In this episode, Scott dives in on reducing false positives for anti-money laundering. Whether you’re focused on cyber security, payment fraud, or financial crime, the work of analysts is primarily looking at elements that inherently don’t have any risks. They have to dig through things like our transactions and online activity to identify cases that represent a financial and regulatory risk. Scott emphasizes how artificial intelligence impacts the analytics experience before and after. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI and strategy, visit Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Stefan Boronea, CTO of Proportunity. Proportunity is a London-based firm focused on home lending and the future of finance. The topic of this episode is the future of lending and extending credit risk for lenders. In this interview, Stefan discusses the current trends in credit lending and where the gaps might be filled in with AI and data in the years ahead. Stefan also joined us on The AI in Business Podcast about three weeks ago, where he discussed the valuation of homes and several related use-cases in depth. If you’d like to listen to Stefan’s other episode and check out more insights from hundreds of business leaders, be sure to subscribe to The AI in Business Podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Today’s guest is Julien Cerutti, Vice President for Sales & Client Success, Enterprise Americas at Meltwater. Meltwater is a financial services company that focuses on drawing insights from outside data sources from various sources. Our focus this week is the topic of unlocking the power of external data. In this episode, Julien discusses a particular use-case that will be relevant in areas like wealth management as well as other business functions such as brand management, improving customer service, and more. Our conversation with Julien was recorded about a year ago, and while the market may have changed a bit since then, his insights are certainly relevant for business leaders navigating the industry today. If you’d like to discover critical AI applications and trends, be sure to download our whitepaper “3 Ways to Discover AI Trends” at emerj.com/t3.

Our guest this week is Ian Wilson. As one of our first ever guests on this podcast more than two years ago, Ian is the former Head of AI at HSBC, one of the largest financial institutions in the world. He now leads Strategy 4 AI, a strategy and education firm based in the United Kingdom. Ian speaks with us about how legacy software providers are starting to level up their software solutions with new AI features in this episode. He also provides some practical advice for selecting AI vendors and some surprising insights into the AI adoption trends that he sees in the enterprise. Be sure to download our whitepaper “AI in Banking: Executive Cheat Sheet” at emerj.com/cs1 to learn how to identify more critical trends in the industry.

Our guest this week is Sunil Tahilramani, Head of Artificial Intelligence at UiPath. With nearly a decade of experience in AI roles at Microsoft, Sunil has been with UiParth for almost two years now. In this episode, Sunil speaks about a particular use-case for RPA and artificial intelligence around routing email messages to clients. Specifically, he discusses the right combination of RPA and AI looks like to streamline and automate customer service workflows. If you've enjoyed or benefited from the insights in this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know what you learned or liked most about this show or what you'd like to see in the future.

This week’s guest is Jay Budzik, CTO of Zest AI. In this episode, Jay discusses the topic of AI accessibility and the scalability process. Zest AI is a firm in the lending space that helps train algorithms to detect risk and determine approvals or terms for different lending products for all types of lenders, from gigantic financial institutions down to credit unions. If you’re interested in knowing more AI use-cases and finding new ways for AI to streamline or automate some of your own strategies, be sure to download our free AI in Financial Services Executive Brief at emerj.com/fs1.

Our guest this week is Greg Council, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Parascript. Parascript is an AI vendor in the financial services space focusing on applications in document search and discovery and other kinds of NLP-oriented processes. In this episode, Greg gives an in-depth description of the manual methods to cash a check, including what banks and financial institutions have to do to process checks and where artificial intelligence fits into the workflow. If you’d like to discover more AI use-cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more, join Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

This week’s guest is Greg Council, VP of Product Management at Parascript. In this episode, Greg discusses the topic of where artificial intelligence can find its fit and start to automate the various paperwork-heavy workflows within the process of lending. He also discusses where Parascript is finding its fit for AI in the lending workflow and describes the workflows as they are today, what human beings are doing in terms of the paperwork in the back office of lending, and where artificial intelligence fits directly into those workflows. Learn more about how to identify and capitalize on the key trends of AI in banking at emerj.com/cs1.

This week’s guest is Ilan Gleiser, Founder and CEO of Synarchy AI, an AI consultancy based in the Bay Area. Ilan has worked with large organizations, including a role as Product Owner for Artificial Intelligence Enterprise Solutions at Wells Fargo, the third-largest bank in the U.S. In this episode, Ilan explains his process for filtering projects based on criteria like the potential return on investment and risk involved to help determine which projects are the most realistic to start with. Ilan also speaks about how he was inspired by some of our frameworks and added his own layer of trust and risk assessment to models. Download our whitepaper “Beginning with AI” at emerj.com/beg1.

This week's guest is Ilan Gleiser, Founder and CEO of Synarchy AI, an AI consultancy firm based in the Bay area. Ilan has a lot of hands-on experience with large enterprises, including work as Product Owner for AI Enterprise Solutions at Wells Fargo, one of the world's largest financial services firms. Today, Ilan discusses AI maturity and how to assess a specific business's skills, culture, and data resources. He also shares the tools he uses to determine potential projects for companies ready to move forward with AI deployment. Ilan is an Emerj subscriber and Emerj Plus Member, and he references some of our frameworks in this episode. To discover more AI use-cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more, visit emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Christophe Makni, Managing Consultant for Lean AI and Automation at Basler Kantonalbank in Basel, Switzerland. Today, Christophe speaks about his processes for thinking about and identifying opportunities for automation in the Financial Services space. Christophe is also a valued Emerj Plus member. If you would like to learn more about how to join business leaders like Christophe around the world using our AI use-cases, whitepapers, and best practice frameworks in their work leading AI change, visit emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Nick Elprin, CEO and Co-Founder of Domino Data Lab, an enterprise data science management platform. Domino has raised over $100M to date. Nick previously served as Senior Application Technologist at Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world. In today’s episode, Nick shares his definition of a platform in the proper sense and speaks about the place and purpose of AI platforms. He also discusses why an enterprise would choose a platform and under what circumstances it would be a worthwhile investment while also sharing his idea of what the future will look like. If you are interested in reaching the Emerj audience, whether through thought leadership, e-mail, podcasts, or more, check out  emerj.com/ad1.

Today's guest is Peter Voss, Founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist at Aigo.ai. Peter shares his perspective today on what is holding chatbots back and what the technology might do in the future. He also discusses some of the unique use cases and challenges of applying conversational interfaces in the banking space specifically. If you are interested in more interviews about conversational interfaces in general, where they are making a dent in business, check out the AI in Business podcast on all major platforms such as Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Google Podcasts, etc.

Today's guest is Pamela Negosanti, Head of Sector Strategy for Financial Services of Expert AI, a firm based in Italy, and doing lots of work globally in the financial space and NLP. Pamela breaks down in relative depth when and how to decide to build, buy, or combine the two. She lays out a couple of different continuums and gradients on decision-making that will help you figure out when you have more points on either side of the board, lean on the build or buy direction, or meet somewhere in the middle. If you are interested in learning to select the right AI vendor and going the buy route, be sure to download our free PDF brief called "5 Ways to Select the Right AI Vendor" at emerj.com/buy1

Today, returning with us is Mark Gazit, CEO, and Founder of ThetaRay, a firm based in Israel but doing business globally, with nearly $70M of funds raised, helping with fraud and anti-money laundering. Mark speaks with us today with a broader perspective in the world of fraud and AI deployments in general, as to where they will find more or less of a fit in the world of financial services in the year ahead as we aim to recover from this wild crisis. Want to learn more about AI deployment? Get Emerj's PDF guide: emerj.com/p1

Today's guest is Shankar Narayanan, Co-Founder, and COO of Active.Ai, a Singapore Head Quartered Fintech startup with an innovation lab in Bengaluru that delivers conversational banking services to help banks and financial institutions redefine their future digital strategy through AI. Shankar speaks to us today about where conversational interfaces belong in banking, where they can get fruitful use, and the areas where it is unrealistic to expect them to deliver value. Are you interested in more NLP use cases, including Conversational Interfaces? Download our free PDF Brief "Unlocking the Business Value of NLP" here: emerj.com/nlp1

Today's guest is the great and brilliant Ram Sukumar, Co-Founder and CEO of Indium Software, a Technology Solutions company with deep expertise in Digital and QA services, such as AI, Advanced Analytics, Text Analytics Center of Excellence, Big Data, Data Engineering, Stream Processing & Data Virtualization, and low-code development across platforms. Ram speaks with me today about particular workflows for text analytics. What does it look like in operation? Where do people get it wrong, where can it fit into play, and where is the potential value for text analytics when it comes to ideas for use cases? What are the practical realities of what you need to expect when deploying these technologies? Are you interested in more use cases and best practices around AI adoption and ROI? Check out Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1

Returning today is the great and brilliant Luca Scagliarini, Chief Product Officer of Expert.ai (formerly Expert System). Expert.ai is a public enterprise services company specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Expert System went public in 2014 and continues to grow, raising $29.4 million to expand its AI text extraction & analysis capabilities in 2020. Its clients include giants like Dow Jones, Vodafone, and the U.S. government. Expert.ai's approach combines symbolic human-like comprehension and machine learning to transform language-intensive processes into practical knowledge. In this episode, Luca helps us dive into: the "war" between symbolic & ML techniques for NLP, when to use NLP to support financial services, and what companies often get wrong. Want to learn more about unlocking the business value of NLP? Get Emerj's PDF guide: emerj.com/nlp1

Today Emerj welcomes the return of the great and brilliant Ash Fontana, General Partner at Zetta Ventures. Zetta primarily invests in AI-first companies with B2B business models, with a portfolio including Kaggle, Domo, and other notables. Ash's career has spanned private equity, investment banking, as well as venture capital. In this episode, he offers a valuable perspective on where AI is taking financial services. Episode topics include: AI-driven risk measurement, risk prediction, and risk mitigation. Want to learn more about AI in financial services? Get Emerj's pdf guide: emerj.com/fin1

Today's guest is the great and brilliant Ron Glozman, CEO of Chisel AI. Chisel is an AI-driven platform for commercial insurance, which won Gold at the 2019 Zurich Innovation World Championship and the ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge in 2018. The platform recognizes over 500 insurance-specific data points, including limits, premiums, deductibles, coverages, exclusions, and more. In this episode, Ron shares how he helps leaders make the business case for his AI-driven solutions, breaking down the challenges and opportunities for AI in insurance and in general. Want to discover more AI use cases in insurance? Get Emerj's AI in Insurance Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/ins1

Today's discussion is with Andrew Clark, cofounder of Monitaur, a Techstars-funded startup that provides auditability, transparency, and governance for companies using machine learning software. Andrew formerly served as Pincipal Machine Learning Auditor at Capital One. And in this episode he shares how AI can audit and monitor algorithms so they don't pose regulatory risks, breaking down why this is necessary, and how it works. Click here to learn more about opportunities for applying AI in financial services: emerj.com/fs1

Kevin Dewalt, founder of Prolego, shares AI project do's and don'ts from a consultant's perspective. Kevin previously served as Director of Strategic Alliances at In-Q-Tel, VC arm for the CIA and US intelligence community, now focuses on training, strategy, and implementation of AI applications for Fortune 500 companies. Are you working to catalyze AI for your organization or your clients? Enroll with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Yinglian Xie, CEO of DataVisor, shares great analogies and practical insights about what fails and what works when putting together a capable team for AI implementation. Learn more about how to make the business case and deploy AI: emerj.com/p1

Rob Delaney, VP at VC firm Carrick Capital Partners, shares some predictions and hopes for his portfolio companies as they navigate through the economic storm caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. What's changing about our industries? What needs to change about the way we handle data? How are strategic priorities shifting? Rob shares his valuable perspective on these and other topics in this episode.

Want to learn more about how to get started deploying AI in your business? Download Emerj's free guide here: emerj.com/beg1

Today's interview is with Aki Ranin, Cofounder of Bambu, a robo-advisor platform based in Singapore. Bambu has raised millions to expand in Asian and American banking markets. Aki is also an adjunct lecturer on AI and machine learning at Singapore Management University. In this episode, he breaks down where AI fits into the world of robo-advisors and is frank about where AI isn't needed. For quick insights, download Emerj's AI in Financial Services Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/fin1

Building a scaleable and productive AI product for the enterprise is not easy. Our guest this week helps listeners think through how to go about it successfully. Suhas Uliyar, VP of Product Management for Digital Assistant AI, Mobile, and Integration at Oracle, discusses why security and scale are key to building AI products that will actually deliver value at large companies.

If you're interested in building AI products for the enterprise or want to get started with AI at your company, be sure to download our Beginning With AI Guide at emerj.com/beg1.

Our guest this week has a unique perspective on how technology priorities are changing in financial services as the pandemic unfolds: Sébastien de Brouwer, Chief Policy Officer at the European Banking Federation.

We speak with him about how the financial services industry is struggling during the crisis, as well as which jobs will ultimately survive and which will not.

If you want to discover how some of the largest companies in financial services are investing in AI, join our new Emerj Plus membership at emerj.com/plus

At this time, many strategic initiatives are being put on pause. The initiatives that tend to still have momentum are related to either driving efficiencies or reducing risk. And when it comes to risk, few are greater than regulatory risk.

This week, we interview Yinglian Xie, CEO and co-founer of DataVisor. Yinglian discusses how AI fits into the compliance landscape in financial services.

If you want to explore more AI use-cases across financial services and see what the big players in the sector are doing, you can use our AI Discovery tool with Emerj Plus. Learn more at emerj.com/plus

During the pandemic, there has been more emphasis than ever on "low-hanging fruit" AI applications and use-cases. Fraud detection is one of these use-cases.

There will be an uptick in financial crimes as happens during economic crises. This week, we speak with H.P. Bunaes, General Manager of Financial Services at Datarobot, which focuses on AutoML. H.P. speaks with us about how fraudulent payments often happen and can go undetected, as well as how AI could play a role in detecting them. He also discusses how to deploy AI applications for fraud detection in financial services.

To learn about how we map the ROI of AI in financial services, watch our short 2-minute video on our AI Opportunity Landscape research at emerj.com/fs1.

The coronavirus is dominating the news, and we figured it was important to cover it as it relates to AI in financial services. This week, we discuss what chatbot adoption will like look during and after the pandemic.

Our guest is Nat Cartwright with Finn AI. She speaks about viable use-cases for AI in customer service and where she thinks those priorities will become more important as we start to pull out of this economic moment we see ourselves in.

We also put together a report on AI priorities as they relate to coronavirus, the AI Business Continuity Action Plan, and we're giving it away free with the first month of Emerj Plus at emerj.com/ap1.

One of my favorite presentations last year was one I gave at an event called PayThink in California. I came to learn that there are more events about payments than almost any other topic in financial services.

This week, we interview the CEO of Deserve, Kalpesh Kapadia, about the future of payments. He discusses which aspects of how we pay for things will be different and explains how AI plays a role in payment fraud.

For more on the applications of AI in financial services, be sure to download our AI in Financial Services Cheat Sheet at emerj.com/fin1.

We are changing the name of our podcast to AI in Financial Services. In this episode, Dan explains why and discusses how the show will address the coronavirus pandemic and how it affects innovation in financial services. 

While a lot of people are excited about customer-facing applications in financial services, right now, the ROI of AI comes down to fraud detection and compliance use-cases. That's what this episode is about.

We interview Hani Hagras, Chief Science Officer of Temenos. Hani speaks with us about the present and future of AI for compliance, including where banks can reduce risk and how AI could help.

If you're interested in how we track AI ROI across different industries, you can learn more about our AI Opportunity Landscape service at emerj.com/fs1.

When it comes to adopting AI applications, the team lessons are almost always better understood by the vendors than by the banks. This week, we speak with Sasha Caskey, CTO of Kasisto. He speaks with us about what he's learned from working with teams that get it right and teams that don't.

He also provides a particularly interesting insight about the importance of having "nurturing" data scientists.

If you haven't downloaded our Beginning With AI Guide, it includes some of our best takeaways about how to get started with AI from dozens of interviews over the last few months. You can download it at emerj.com/beg1.

Our guest this week, Madhu, works at one of the top 10 Australian banks. He has a lot of experience applying AI in customer service. Madhu speaks about how to grow an AI team, when to hire data scientists, when to hire someone to lead those data scientists, and what kinds of talent needs to be there to help guide data scientists. 

If you're interested in learning more about our AI Opportunity Landscape work in the financial services industry, watch our video at emerj.com/fs1.

Almost any time we engage with financial institutions, chatbots are at least part of the conversation. There are not many credible chatbot companies that are focused explicitly in banking, but Kasisto is one of them. Our guest this week, Sasha Caskey, is CTO of Kasisto.

Sasha talks about starting small with chatbots and reasonable expectations for them in banking.

If you're interested in mapping the full landscape of AI applications in financial services, be sure to watch our AI Opportunity Landscape video at emerj.com/fs1.

Our guest this week, Paul Barba, heads up AI efforts at Lexalytics. I visited their headquarters as part of our AI in Montreal piece we released about 2 years back.

Paul speaks with us about how NLP can layer value on top of conversational interfaces, as well as the limits of chatbots and NLP in finance.

For more on what NLP can and can't do in business, be sure to download our 9-page guide, Unlocking the Value of NLP in Business, at emerj.com/nlp1.

This week, we interview Madhu, who works on conversational interfaces at one of the four largest Australian banks. He speaks today about the phases of deployment for bringing a chatbot to life in financial services. It involves more phases than people might presume, but they are important to understand.

If you have an interest in the broader AI opportunity landscape in banking, you can learn more about how we can help at emerj.com/fs1.

This month, we start a brand new theme: chatbots in banking. Nothing is more hyped in banking than chatbots, so we want to shed some light on what's actually happening with chatbots in the banking industry and what really isn't. 

Our guest this week is Scott Nowson, AI Lead at PwC, Middle East. Scott talks about the three phases of building a chatbot from scratch.

Scott was also one of the first to review our Getting Started With AI Report. If you're looking to apply AI within your business, our Getting Started With AI report is a distillation of our best AI adoption insights from over 50 interviews with executives in the enterprise and at AI vendor companies. You can learn more about it at emerj.com/a1. 

This week, we interview Jan Veldsink, head of AI for compliance at Rabobank. He's been using AI and advanced statistics to detect fraud at Rabobank for nearly ten years. He shares with us some practical near-term applications of NLP in compliance, as well as his ideas on where NLP can add more value to banking in the future.

This is our last episode in January's series on NLP in banking. If you want to take action on the ideas we've talked about this month, be sure to download our guide on NLP use-cases at emerj.com/nlp1.

This week, we speak with a fan favorite guest from our AI in Industry Podcast: Dr. Charles Martin of Calculation Consulting. Charles talks about the challenges of applying natural language processing to wealth management, including what's working and what's not with AI in wealth management. He has a lot of experience applying AI in the enterprise, and I think you'll enjoy this particular episode quite a bit.

If you're interested in NLP and where it can be used in your business, download our NLP use-case guide at emerj.com/NLP1.

We speak this week with Greg Council, VP of Marketing and Product Management at Parascript, an AI-enabled search and discovery vendor selling into the financial services sector. In this episode, Greg discusses what NLP can and can't do in the banking industry.

If you're interested in broad natural language processing use-cases and you haven't already downloaded our NLP use-case guide, you can do so at emerj.com/NLP1.

It's the first episode of the new decade, and we're kicking off with our theme for the entire month of January: natural language processing (NLP) applications in banking.

Our first guest is Lee Smallwood, COO Markets and Securities at Citi. He was a trusted advisor for our most robust AI in banking research report.

This week, Lee talks about front- and back-end NLP applications in banking, and I think he paints a great overall picture that will tee up the other three interviews for this month well.

If you're interested in where NLP could fit in your business, download our Unlocking the Business Value of NLP PDF guide. It's the most succinct resource for figuring out where NLP would make a difference at your company. Download it at emerj.com/NLP1.

This is an excellent episode. We speak with Ritchie Ng, Chief AI Officer at Ensemble Capital. Ritchie goes into a topic we really haven't covered much in this series and which hasn't been a big focus of the podcast: hiring data scientists. That's hard when Google and Facebook are grabbing the top talent. Ritchie goes into how this should be done.

If you're getting started with AI at your business, be sure to download our guide on beginning with AI, which outlines 3 critical steps to initially adopting AI that most companies end up getting wrong. Download it at emerj.com/beg1.

This week, we speak with Marek Bardonski, CEO of AI Rev. He was previously with Sigmoidal, where his focus was on AI for wealth management.

When it comes to what banks can do that startups can't, it's make the most of the money they have on hand, and the future of wealth management and trading is potentially an area of edge for smart financial services firms and banks around the world.

In this episode, Marek goes into what is and isnt possible with AI as it relates to trading in particular.

Download our short guide, 3 Ways to Discover AI Trends in any Sector, if you're interested in finding high-ROI AI opportunities in your sector at emerj.com/t3. 

This week, we speak with Executive Director of AlgoDynamix, Jeremy Sosabowski, about how banks can leverage partnerships and vendors as opposed to building in-house AI talent. He also speaks to us about how banks can deal with some of their inherent weaknesses when facing up against the startup ecosystem.

if you're interested in natural language processing applications in banking, be sure to download our NLP use-case guide at emerj.com/NLP1

Emerj.com/NLP1

In this episode of AI in Banking, Eigen Tech CEO Lewis Liu shares his thoughts on how banks can leverage their data, expertise, and deployable capital to compete and keep up with AI startups - and to stay relevant in the years ahead. 

Lewis's original interview was part of our AI in Banking Landscape report. If you haven't yet downloaded your copy of the executive brief of this report, download it online at: emerj.com/b1

This month, we're focused on how banks can survive and thrive in an era of Ai disruption. Our first guest is Rob Delaney with Carrick Capital. Rob speaks with us about where banks can focus their own internal AI efforts if they want to compete with fintechs, whether they focus on customer-facing applications or internal applications. He also discusses what the future ecosystem looks like in terms of how finance is being transformed.

This is our final episode in our month-long series on AI for search and discovery in banking, and this week we speak with Dan Courtright, Senior Director of Management at Iron Mountain. If you've ever taken out a loan from the bank, you know that there is a lot of paperwork involved. AI-enabled search and discovery applications could help streamline loan processing and loan origination, as well as help underwriting,  assess applicant risk. Dan and I discuss these use-cases in more in the final episode of this month's theme.

AI-enabled search and discovery is one capability of natural language processing, a type of artificial intelligence. For more NLP use-cases, download our latest resource at emerj.com/NLP1.

In this episode, we continue our theme on AI-enabled search and discovery in banking by interviewing Sheetal Rishi, Global Cognitive and Data Leader at IBM. She previously spent time McKinsey and Citi. 

Sheetal speaks to us about which functional departments she believes there exists the most need for search and discovery applications in banking, and she discusses how the areas in which banks spend their money signals their motives for adopting AI technology.

This week, we speak with Luca Scagliarini with Expert System about a number of low-hanging fruit NLP applications within banking, including those for wealth management. He discusses where the advantage lies in terms of using NLP to decide on making investment decisions for clients. There's a lot of action in this space, and Luca does a great job of summarizing it.

He also discusses where chatbots will go and how the customer interaction will change in the years ahead, including how customers will be able to use chatbots to take actions instead of just get simple questions answered.

This week kicks off our first episode in our month-long series on AI for search and discovery in banking. How can AI help us find data, find files, find documents within a bank's intranet? Whether we're looking for customer information, legal issues, or the right document, how can AI help?

This week, we speak with Simone Bohnenberger-Rich of Eigen Tech about how banks can use AI to find documents that might require a review before the sunset date of LIBOR in 2021. This episode presents a great example of how AI for search and discovery can be used to maintain compliance and reduce risk.

This is our final episode in our series on building a culture of innovation in banks, our analyst episode in which Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella summarizes and adds insight to the interviews from this past month.

In this episode, Daniel talks about the individual greatest factor in determining whether a bank has a culture of innovation or not: how well the C-suite can articulate an AI transformation vision.

This week, we speak with Mark Gazit, CEO of Thetaray, an AI vendor that focuses on financial fraud and anti-money laundering. Mark speaks with us from a vendor perspective about what kind of culture a bank has when it adopts AI the right way and what kind of culture it has when it adopts AI the wrong way. Mark also doubles down on the idea that the culture of innovation needs to be top-down, coming from the leadership team.

When banks, financial services companies, and even AI vendors servicing the banking landscape look to innovate in how they improve their customer experience, it's almost never because they want to service their most valuable customers today.

It's almost always driven by what they know the next generation is going to expect. Whenever we do work for our clients, Millenials are almost always on the tip of their tongues.

This week, we speak with Michelle Scarborough, Managing Partner of Strategic Investments and Women in Tech at BDC. from the perspective of both a banker and an investor about what innovation means for Millenials, as well as how banks can enable the innovation that will attract and retain this new generation of digital citizen.

This month's theme is the culture of innovation within banks. When we did our AI in banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report and we asked bankers what the biggest barrier to AI adoption in banking was, the number one response was the lack of a culture of innovation within banks. And the question is: how do we change that? How do we cultivate that culture?

In this episode, we interview Josephine Baliah, former Head of Client Experience Design at FirstRand Group, about having leadership that steps behind innovation. She talks about what the leadership can do and where it can be hired from.

This is the final episode of our September series on Strategic Recommendations for Bankers. My job this week is to connect the dots between some of the insights we got from our interviewees this month. This includes one common thread across interviews: banks have an underlying fear of the FinTechs popping up everywhere and eating market share.

This week, we speak with With Sebastien de Brouwer, Chief Policy Officer at the European Banking Federation, about where banking leaders should be focused when it comes to AI in banking. Sebastien discusses which areas of banking—customer experience, legal risk, positioning—banks might latch onto when allocating budget for AI.

Our guest this week is Nishant Chandra, PhD and Senior Director of Data Products at Visa.

Nishant speaks with us about how banks can pivot to play to their strengths in a future where the technology landscape is shifting under their feet. He uses some good examples from Apple and GE that can help banking leaders think through how their culture can change to make AI a positive and not a negative.

This week, we spoke to another of our research advisors: Lee Smallwood, COO of Markets and Securities for Citi North America. Lee speaks with us about the dynamics of AI talent: finding the right talent and growing the right talent.

How can a bank attract the right young people, train the right people within their organization, and martial them to success with AI in the future? How does a bank compete with Google, Facebook, and other AI-focused giants for AI talent?

We answer these questions in this week's interview.

This month we focus on strategic recommendations for AI in banking. We're bringing back our research advisors for our AI in Banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report, and this week, we speak with Ian Wilson, former Head of AI at HSBC.

Wilson shares some of his thoughts as to what bankers should be thinking about when it comes to AI. Specifically:

1. Why is all the investment and attention around AI focused on risk?

2. What banking leaders should do to prepare for when that emphasis shifts away from risk.

It's the final episode of our month-long series on AI for the customer experience in banking. This week, Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella breaks down the insights from this month's interviews and colors them with data from our AI in Banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report.

In this episode, Daniel draws a picture about what the data says about AI for customer-facing applications in banking and barriers to adoption for AI in customer service.

This week we're joined by Sasha Caskey, the CTO of Kasisto. Kasisto is the highest-rated conversational interface vendor in our AI in Banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report.

Caskey discusses the future of where conversational interfaces fit into banking, including the automation of repetitive tasks. She also talks about the challenges of personal assistance, and how the real revolution in terms of market share may not come from established banks, but entirely digital banks and entirely digital currencies.

This week, we speak with Sindhu Joseph, CEO at CogniCor. She drops a quote in this interview that I really love and that I think hits on this month's theme well: "People don't need banks. They need banking."

Joseph discusses how banks will have to transform to meet consumer expectations that are set by big tech. She talks about how one could hypothetically build a bank for 10% of the cost that banks run on today, and what that means for large banks.

Finally, Joseph talks about how the banking workforce will change in response to artificial intelligence.

For more on how AI is transforming banking, download the Executive Summary Brief of our AI in Banking Vendor Landscape at Capability Map.

The theme for the entire month is AI for the customer experience in banking. In this episode, we speak with Yinglian Xie, CEO at Datavisor.

Xie sheds light on how users will expect to have "zero-step" authentication, the "friction-free" future of banking. Xie paints a picture about how the experience consumers have with big tech (such as a Facebook app) can be transferred into banking.

She gives a sense for how backend data can have a strong effect on how well banks can serve customers on the front end. Xie also talks about the value of new data sources as banks shift into the digital world.

We learned a lot about AI in risk-related banking functions, such as fraud, cybersecurity, compliance, and lending, in our AI in Banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report. In this month's analyst deep dive, Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella discusses some of the insights garnered from the data in our report about why vendors selling products for risk-related functions have raised so much money and why AI is such a good fit for fraud and cybersecurity.

This week, we speak with Owen Hall, CEO at Heliocor, about the proliferation of what Hall calls "breadcrumbs," digital touchpoints that a user has with a bank. He talks about how these touchpoints are creating new opportunities for banks and, also, new risks in terms of fraud and cybersecurity.

Hall also discusses how banks can leverage their brand, in contrast to other guests we've had on the podcast, who are less optimistic about brands as an asset.

This week on the AI in Banking podcast we interview Ohad Samet, CEO of TrueAccord, about the applications of artificial intelligence for debt collection. We discuss personalized messaging, collection forecasting, and the debt collection AI lessons that might be applied to other finance use-cases.

This is the third episode in our month-long focus on risk-related AI functions in banking.

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https://emerj.com/ai-in-banking-podcast/ Related article:

https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/artificial-intelligence-applications-lending-loan-management/

This week, we speak with Adam Hunt, CTO of RiskIQ, about how cybersecurity is shifting in the world of banking and financial services and why AI will be necessary to handle those changes. Fraud and cybersecurity startups selling to banks have raised more than vendors for any other business function, and we talk about why AI is such a good fit for cybersecurity in banking.

Hunt also discusses how banks can secure AI talent in banking. Working on cybersecurity at a bank may not be as flashy as working on self-driving cars or working for Amazon, but there are things banks can do to attract AI talent they'll need to build and maintain cybersecurity systems.

This week, we speak with Gunnar Carlsson, co-founder of Ayasdi, one of the better-known anti-money laundering AI vendors and one of the highest ranking in our AI in Banking Vendor Landscape report. Carlsson pioneered his own branch of mathematics that eventually became the backbone of Ayasdi's AI software.

We speak to Carlsson about methods of calibrating and understanding risk at banks, new sources of data and algorithmic approaches (and what they mean for banks), and the difference between supervised and unsupervised learning. Both machine learning techniques can be used to solve business problems in unique ways.

Lastly, we discuss with Carlsson something of critical importance in risk-related functions: knowing your customer.

Customer experience is what wins, according to Lee Smallwood, COO Markets and Securities Services at Citi. In this episode of the AI in Banking Podcast, we speak with Smallwood about how fintech companies are already using AI to improve the customer experience and how banks will likely have trouble competing with them on that front. 

Smallwood, however, also talks about how banks can leverage their existing assets to retain market share in functions in which fintech companies don’t have the resources to compete, such as asset management. Learn what banks should be thinking about when it comes to developing winning AI strategies to compete with fintech startups.

According to Sergey Gribov, Partner at Flint Capital, “banks are the ultimate commodity.” Fintech startups can offer banking services with leaner teams and better customer experiences using artificial intelligence. But banks need to differentiate themselves somehow from not just fintech companies, but other banks, especially as they decide which banking functions they want to focus on in the coming decade. Banks will almost certainly become leaner operations to stay in business, and they’ll need to make strategic decisions that direct their future. 

In this episode of the AI in Banking podcast, Gribov offers a frank picture of the banking landscape in the coming years and how banks will need to respond to it.

The Emerj team discusses insights from our AI in Banking Vendor Scorecard and Capability Map report. Which banking functions are banks eager to automate with AI? Which functions are sucking up all of the venture capital funding? Which AI capabilities are all hype? Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella and lead analyst Raghav Bharadwaj break down what our data tells us about the future of artificial intelligence in banking in this episode of the AI in Banking Podcast.

We interview the former Head of Artificial Intelligence at HSBC about how banks should go about developing not one AI strategy for their business, but multiple AI strategies for each business function, each department at a company. He also discusses the importance of the Chief AI Officer in steering the company toward success with AI.

How are banks experimenting (or not) with AI now, and what do they need to transition to the kind of experimentation that will actually deliver value with AI in the coming few years? Find out in this episode of the AI in Banking Podcast.

Banks have several challenges to AI adoption. One of them is their legacy IT and data infrastructures which aren’t built or organized for machine learning. Nishant Chandra, PhD, Senior Director of Data Products at Visa, outlines how banks can transition their legacy systems to systems ready for AI.

Chandra discusses the importance of leadership teams in cultivating a company culture necessary for adopting AI with any success, and he gives examples of times when he’s seen old systems hold a company back from adopting AI and when he’s seen leadership do the same.

Discover how banks can overcome some of the pitfalls to AI adoption in this episode of the AI in Banking Podcast.