Zest AI's Mike de Vere: 'You don't have to give up economics to be more fair'

Welcome to the Tearsheet Podcast. I’m Zack Miller. When the pandemic hit, lending models didn’t catch up quickly enough. Machine learning, like the kind Zest AI has developed, moved quicker, helping lenders to figure out how quickly things were deteriorating and where. ML models also have been instrumental in identifying and avoiding biases in lending practices. Zest AI CEO Mike de Vere joins us on the podcast to discuss his firms go to market strategy and business model and how the two kind of fit nicely. Mike shares his views on how to bring technology to lending and specifically, de-biasing models to approve more minority borrowers. Mike de Vere is my guest today on the Tearsheet Podcast. Before we jump into our show, I wanted to tell you about Tearsheet’s upcoming Challengers Conference. A first of its kind show, this 2-day online conference is everything about digital banking. We’ll have senior executives from top challenger banks like N26, Revolut, OakNorth, and Betterment as well as new entrants to the digital banking market, like Intuit and Credit Sesame. It’s all happening September 22 and 24th. Go to Tearsheet.co and click on Conferences at the top to learn more.