S03 Ep09: The Future of Payments with Amir Wain CEO at i2C and EDC's CEO Samee Zafar : AI, Tokenization, and Beyond

In this episode, Samee Zafar from Edgar, Dunn & Company speaks with Amir Wain, CEO of i2c, about the transformative role of AI in financial services and payments. They discuss the definition of agentic AI versus generative AI, its benefits for businesses, and the importance of focusing on business objectives over technology. Amir shares insights on founding i2c to address complexity in financial platforms through a single customer-centric solution. The conversation also explores practical applications such as AI-powered customer service, the significance of tokenization for agentic commerce, and the potential of digital assistants.

Show Notes:

In this episode, Samee Zafar of Edgar, Dunn & Company talks with Amir Wain, CEO and founder of i2c, about how AI is reshaping financial services and what businesses should actually do about it. From customer service automation to agentic commerce, Amir explains why AI is both an existential threat and a massive opportunity—and how to focus on the latter by starting with business objectives, not technology.

 

They also explore how agentic AI goes beyond chatbots to take real actions, why legacy infrastructure often holds back AI implementation, and how digital assistants will change the way we shop and manage daily tasks. Amir shares how AI enables smaller players to compete with giants through 24/7 service and personalized experiences, and why tokenization is the right foundation for agentic commerce.

 

Join us as we explore the evolution from generative to agentic AI, practical applications in payments and commerce, and why the dust will settle on digital assistants just like it did with mobile operating systems—with AI becoming core infrastructure rather than standalone products.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

In this episode: 

 

• Why AI is both an existential threat and a great equalizer for businesses
• How to approach AI by focusing on business objectives: differentiation and efficiency
• The evolution from generative AI to agentic AI and the four key components
• How AI-powered customer service enables first-call resolution and 24/7 scalability
• The potential of digital assistants to consolidate commerce and boost productivity
• Why legacy infrastructure holds back AI implementation in financial services
• The role of tokenization in enabling secure agentic commerce
• How AI democratizes data analytics and enables true personalization at scale​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Resources:

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirwain 

Website: https://www.i2cinc.com