

AI in Financial Services Podcast
Daniel Faggella
The AI in Financial Services is for non-technical financial services leaders looking to find AI opportunities, build an AI strategy, and deliver ROI.
Each week, Emerj AI Research team (and CEO Daniel Faggella) interview leaders from global financial services firms and unicorn AI startups to get to the heart of AI ROI - uncovering what’s working and what’s not working for FinServ leaders.
Visit our advertising page to learn more about reaching our executive audience of AI adopters in the world’s largest banking and insurance firms: https://emerj.com/advertise
Each week, Emerj AI Research team (and CEO Daniel Faggella) interview leaders from global financial services firms and unicorn AI startups to get to the heart of AI ROI - uncovering what’s working and what’s not working for FinServ leaders.
Visit our advertising page to learn more about reaching our executive audience of AI adopters in the world’s largest banking and insurance firms: https://emerj.com/advertise
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 1, 2022 • 20min
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.

Mar 1, 2022 • 27min
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.

Feb 1, 2022 • 15min
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.

Jan 1, 2022 • 22min
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.

Dec 1, 2021 • 26min
AI Use-Case Highlight: Payment Processing for Checks - with Greg Council of Parascript
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.

Nov 1, 2021 • 19min
AI Use-Case Highlight: Streamlining Lending Processes - with Greg Council of Parascript
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.

Oct 1, 2021 • 28min
Prioritizing AI Projects for ROI and Risk - with Ilan Gleiser of Synarchy AI
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.

Sep 1, 2021 • 33min
Are we Ready to Use AI? Assessing AI Maturity - with Ilan Gleiser of Synarchy AI
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.

Aug 1, 2021 • 19min
Discovering Automation and AI Opportunities in Financial Services - with Christophe Makni of Basler Kantonalbank
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.

Jul 1, 2021 • 18min
The Present and Future of ML Platforms - with Nick Elprin of Domino Data Labs
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.