AI in Financial Services Podcast

Unlock the business value of AI in financial services with in-depth interviews on trends, use-cases, and cutting-edge best practices. In each episode, Emerj Founder Daniel Faggella interviews leaders at firms like HSBC, Citigroup, and Visa - as well as AI innovators from Silicon Valley and around the world. Subscribe to Emerj's weekly AI newsletter by downloading our "AI in Financial Services Cheat Sheet" PDF guide: https://emerj.com/fin1

95 episodes· 559 subscribers

Mar 27 · 18m Building an Effective AI Team in Financial Services - with Lori Cenci of HSBC 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.
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Mar 20 · 20m Bringing AI to the Onboarding Process - with Sarah Welch of Curinos 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.
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Mar 13 · 25m Effective Data Governance For Compliance Risk in Financial Services - with Supreet Kaur of Morgan Stanley 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!
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Mar 6 · 17m Making Wealth Management Customizable with AI - with Alessandro Tonchia of InvestCloud Today’s guest is the Head of Strategy, Private Banking & Wealth at InvestCloud, 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.
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Feb 27 · 23m Giving Enterprise Data a Voice - with Martín Ramírez of WellSaid Labs 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. WellSaid Labs. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.
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Feb 20 · 29m Predicting Market Risk with AI - with Francis Geeseok Oh of Qraft Technologies 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 .
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Feb 13 · 21m The Future of Lead Optimization in Real Estate, Insurance, and Beyond - with Wilbur Swan of Catchlight Insights 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 .
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Feb 6 · 27m What Autonomy Means for Accounting - with Alexander Hagerup of Vic.ai 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 DeM ello, 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 .
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Jan 30 · 27m Use Cases in Trust Automation - with Christian Van Leeuwen of FRISS 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 .
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Jan 23 · 18m Building Deeper Customer Profiles with Computer Vision in Banking - with Kelly Harlin of Sharp NEC 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.
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Jan 16 · 23m AI for Upselling and Cross-Selling in Insurance - with Zohar Bronfman, CEO of Pecan.ai 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!
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Jan 9 · 22m How Insurance Will Fundamentally Change - with Pardeep Bassi of WTW 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.
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Jan 2 · 22m Measuring the ROI of AI - with Jay Budzik of Zest AI 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!
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Dec 5 · 23m Monitoring the Health of a Loan Portfolio - with Jackson Hull of OakNorth 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.
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Nov 1 · 30m FinServ's Shifting AI Priorities Post-COVID - with Sankar Narayanan of Fractal 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.
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Oct 2 · 26m Two Use-Cases of AI in Wealth Management - with Nirupam Sarkar of Fidelity Investments 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!
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Sep 1 · 15m Going to Market with an AI Product in Financial Services - with Jonathan Mascie-Taylor of FinTern 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.
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Aug 1 · 26m Becoming Truly Data Driven - with Tanvi Singh of UBS 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.
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Jul 1 · 21m Reducing False Positives for Anti-Money Laundering - with Scott Nowson of PwC 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.
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Jun 1 · 12m Today's Lending is Only Getting Half the Picture - with Stefan Boronea of Proportunity 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.
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May 1 · 33m The Evolving Role of AI for External Search - with Julien Cerutti of Meltwater 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.
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Apr 1 · 19m How Fraud is Changing in a Post-COVID World - with Brett Beranek of Nuance Communications This week’s guest is Brett Beranek, Vice-President & General Manager of Security & Biometrics Line of Business at Nuance Communications. In today’s episode, Brett speaks with us about the fraud-related trends in the financial services industry as a result of COVID and some of the concrete use-cases we could consider to address them moving forward. He first speaks specifically about the industry trends related to fraud and paints a picture of how fraud is shifting at a high level before diving into a concrete use-case more deeply. To learn more about the methods for finding AI trends that will allow you to stay ahead of the curve, download our whitepaper “3 Ways to Discover AI Trends” at emerj.com/t3.
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Mar 1 · 26m When to Work with Existing Vendors vs. New AI Vendors - with Ian Wilson of Strategy 4 AI 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.
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Feb 1 · 15m Automating and Streamlining Customer Service Workflows - with Sunil Tahilramani of UiPath 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.
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Jan 1 · 22m Making AI Accessible to Smaller Financial Institutions - with Jay Budzik of Zest AI 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.
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