Episode 211 - AI Unleashed: Exploring Fresh Horizons in Payments with Frank Young and Russ Jones

With all its associated technologies (neural networks, symbolic reasoning, search algorithms, probabilistic reasoning, expert systems, and more), AI has been evolving in universities, the government, and corporations for decades. But only those with a keen interest in this technology have been paying close attention to its progress. Meanwhile, a chatbot helped you when you contacted support. Or you used Alexa or Siri to answer a question, play some music, turn on your lights, buy something online, pay your bills, or tell a joke. In our lives, we have caught glimpses of AI’s potential but no clear line of sight as to how powerful the underpinning technologies have become or how quickly they are evolving.

With the unveiling of ChatGPT and similar tools, we are now face to face with the AI era. In his book, Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI, Reid Hoffman says, "Much of what we do as modern people—at work and beyond—is to process information and generate action. GPT-4 will massively speed your ability to do these things, and with greater breadth and scope. Within a few years, this copilot will fall somewhere between useful and essential to most professionals and many other sorts of workers. Without GPT-4, they’ll be slower, less comprehensive, and working at a great disadvantage.

The Payments Industry is interesting because it is constantly changing, and technology has always been a significant change agent. For decades, networks, processors, PSPs, merchants, and financial institutions have invested in technology to increase adoption, create new services, manage risk, and accelerate initiation, clearing, and settlement. 

In this episode, Yvette Bohanan is joined by Frank Young, a 35-year veteran of the fintech space, and Glenbrook’s Russ Jones to think about how AI might transform the payments industry and how organizations should mobilize for this transformation. It’s time to start talking about this topic seriously - with each other - and not just asking ChatGPT.