
AI in Financial Services Podcast
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
Latest episodes

Feb 1, 2021 • 29min
Text Analytics and NLP in Financial Services - with Ram Sukumar of IndiumSoft
Today's guest is the great and brilliant Ram Sukumar, Co-Founder and CEO of Indium Software, a Technology Solutions company with deep expertise in Digital and QA services, such as AI, Advanced Analytics, Text Analytics Center of Excellence, Big Data, Data Engineering, Stream Processing & Data Virtualization, and low-code development across platforms. Ram speaks with me today about particular workflows for text analytics. What does it look like in operation? Where do people get it wrong, where can it fit into play, and where is the potential value for text analytics when it comes to ideas for use cases? What are the practical realities of what you need to expect when deploying these technologies? Are you interested in more use cases and best practices around AI adoption and ROI? Check out Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1

Jan 1, 2021 • 27min
Applying NLP in FinServ, Practical Considerations - with Luca Scagliarini of Expert.ai (formerly Expert System)
Returning today is the great and brilliant Luca Scagliarini, Chief Product Officer of Expert.ai (formerly Expert System). Expert.ai is a public enterprise services company specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Expert System went public in 2014 and continues to grow, raising $29.4 million to expand its AI text extraction & analysis capabilities in 2020. Its clients include giants like Dow Jones, Vodafone, and the U.S. government. Expert.ai's approach combines symbolic human-like comprehension and machine learning to transform language-intensive processes into practical knowledge. In this episode, Luca helps us dive into: the "war" between symbolic & ML techniques for NLP, when to use NLP to support financial services, and what companies often get wrong. Want to learn more about unlocking the business value of NLP? Get Emerj's PDF guide: emerj.com/nlp1

Dec 1, 2020 • 21min
AI in Risk Management - with Ash Fontana, General Partner at Zetta Ventures
Today Emerj welcomes the return of the great and brilliant Ash Fontana, General Partner at Zetta Ventures. Zetta primarily invests in AI-first companies with B2B business models, with a portfolio including Kaggle, Domo, and other notables. Ash's career has spanned private equity, investment banking, as well as venture capital. In this episode, he offers a valuable perspective on where AI is taking financial services. Episode topics include: AI-driven risk measurement, risk prediction, and risk mitigation. Want to learn more about AI in financial services? Get Emerj's pdf guide: emerj.com/fin1

Nov 1, 2020 • 21min
Making the Business Case for AI in Insurance - with Ron Glozman
Today's guest is the great and brilliant Ron Glozman, CEO of Chisel AI. Chisel is an AI-driven platform for commercial insurance, which won Gold at the 2019 Zurich Innovation World Championship and the ACORD InsurTech Innovation Challenge in 2018. The platform recognizes over 500 insurance-specific data points, including limits, premiums, deductibles, coverages, exclusions, and more. In this episode, Ron shares how he helps leaders make the business case for his AI-driven solutions, breaking down the challenges and opportunities for AI in insurance and in general. Want to discover more AI use cases in insurance? Get Emerj's AI in Insurance Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/ins1

Oct 1, 2020 • 22min
Auditing Machine Learning Systems in Financial Services - with Andrew Clark of Monitaur
Today's discussion is with Andrew Clark, cofounder of Monitaur, a Techstars-funded startup that provides auditability, transparency, and governance for companies using machine learning software. Andrew formerly served as Pincipal Machine Learning Auditor at Capital One. And in this episode he shares how AI can audit and monitor algorithms so they don't pose regulatory risks, breaking down why this is necessary, and how it works. Click here to learn more about opportunities for applying AI in financial services: emerj.com/fs1

Sep 1, 2020 • 25min
AI Consulting Do's and Don'ts - with Kevin Dewalt of Prolego
Kevin Dewalt, founder of Prolego, shares AI project do's and don'ts from a consultant's perspective. Kevin previously served as Director of Strategic Alliances at In-Q-Tel, VC arm for the CIA and US intelligence community, now focuses on training, strategy, and implementation of AI applications for Fortune 500 companies. Are you working to catalyze AI for your organization or your clients? Enroll with Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1

Aug 1, 2020 • 26min
Building Successful AI Project Teams - with Yinglian Xie of DataVisor
Yinglian Xie, CEO of DataVisor, shares great analogies and practical insights about what fails and what works when putting together a capable team for AI implementation. Learn more about how to make the business case and deploy AI: emerj.com/p1

Jul 1, 2020 • 16min
How AI Startups can Survive the Coronavirus Crisis - with Rob Delaney of Carrick Capital
Rob Delaney, VP at VC firm Carrick Capital Partners, shares some predictions and hopes for his portfolio companies as they navigate through the economic storm caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. What's changing about our industries? What needs to change about the way we handle data? How are strategic priorities shifting? Rob shares his valuable perspective on these and other topics in this episode. Want to learn more about how to get started deploying AI in your business? Download Emerj's free guide here: emerj.com/beg1

Jun 15, 2020 • 31min
Do Roboadvisors Need AI? - with Aki Ranin of Bambu
Today's interview is with Aki Ranin, Cofounder of Bambu, a robo-advisor platform based in Singapore. Bambu has raised millions to expand in Asian and American banking markets. Aki is also an adjunct lecturer on AI and machine learning at Singapore Management University. In this episode, he breaks down where AI fits into the world of robo-advisors and is frank about where AI isn't needed. For quick insights, download Emerj's AI in Financial Services Cheat Sheet: emerj.com/fin1

May 4, 2020 • 22min
What Makes an AI Product Successful in the Enterprise? - With Suhas Uliyar of Oracle
Building a scaleable and productive AI product for the enterprise is not easy. Our guest this week helps listeners think through how to go about it successfully. Suhas Uliyar, VP of Product Management for Digital Assistant AI, Mobile, and Integration at Oracle, discusses why security and scale are key to building AI products that will actually deliver value at large companies. If you're interested in building AI products for the enterprise or want to get started with AI at your company, be sure to download our Beginning With AI Guide at emerj.com/beg1.