AI in Financial Services Podcast

Today’s guest is Pardeep Bassi, Global Proposition Leader of Data Science at Willis Towers Watson. He’s also spent the last decade in data science leadership roles for insurance firms. Pardeep returns to the Emerj podcast platform to talk about a rising inflection point with old insurers who have data but don’t know how to use it and startups that don’t have data but are more agile in deploying AI solutions. He and Emerj Head of Research Daniel Faggella also discuss how insurance firms – particularly legacy institutions - can go beyond automation and predictive insights, using AI to find the right questions to ask to understand customers’ risk better. For access to Emerj’s Executive Cheat Sheet on AI in insurance, check out emerj.com/ins1.

Today’s guest is Jay Budzik, Chief Technology Officer of Zest AI. What are the best ways to measure ROI for an early AI project? There are countless ways to answer the question, as virtually every organization working in AI finds the process challenging. Yet Jay and Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella pull apart what it means when the value of differing metrics changes and the best ways to find a proxy. Later, they discuss how best to prepare early AI adoption initiatives before they begin and what “strategic value” means outside immature expectations of financial returns in the first few months. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from some of the insights of this episode, consider leaving us a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Today’s guest is Jackson Hull. At the time of recording this interview, Jackson was the COO of OakNorth, but he now serves as the CEO of Elliptic. OakNorth is a financial services unicorn company based in the United Kingdom. In this episode, we explore a topic that is very pertinent to Jackson’s former role: assessing the health of your loan portfolio. Understanding your loan portfolio’s health is an essential skill for executives in the finserv industry, but right now, it is a sticky business and might be a place where artificial intelligence can add value. Jackson provides a high-level strategic perspective on the business and discusses an interesting use-case. To access Emerj’s non-technical guide for getting started with AI deployment, check out emerj.com/beg1.

This week’s guest is Sankar Narayanan, Chief Practice Officer at Fractal. Fractal is a unicorn company focusing on services and solutions in various industries, including financial services. In this episode, we unpack what the post-covid world looks like from a priorities standpoint for financial services leaders. Sankar shares perspectives from across the organizations they’re serving at Fractal and what he’s seeing amongst leaders in the financial services industries. He also addresses questions of funding, more or less critical problems in the industry, where AI might add value, and more. Discover more AI use-cases, best practice guides, white papers, frameworks, and more - join Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Nirupam Sarkar, VP of Data Science at Fidelity Investments, a legacy financial institution that presides over about $4.5 trillion in assets under management. In today’s episode, Nirupam discusses two workflows with broad applications across regulation-heavy industries. He also details use-cases involving summarization in wealth management and categorization in mutual funds. Nirupam also shares his thoughts on the future of leveraging and framing information to the essentials of decision-making at the highest levels of wealth management. If you’ve enjoyed or benefited from the insights in this episode, consider leaving a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and let us know what you learned, found helpful, or liked most about this show!

Our guest on today's episode of the AI in Financial Services podcast is Managing Director for Render at Fintern Jonathan Mascie-Taylor. Jonathan and Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella discuss his experience in product launches and how lenders, in particular, can approach AI adoption to enhance the process. Jonathan also explains in-depth strategies for identifying main value propositions and turning lenders into B2b sales. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI and strategy, visit Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1. 

In today’s episode, we’re talking about becoming data-driven in financial services. Our guest is Tanvi Singh. At the time of this recording, she was wrapping up nearly eight years with Credit Suisse, most recently as Managing Director of Digital Transformation and Product Labs. She is now the Group Head of the ADA Foundations Hub at UBS. There are two critical takeaways from this episode. The first is a view of the world of data and the future of financial services where data can be leveraged for AI value, drive value for customers, and operational efficiencies. The second half of the episode is about building that robust data mesh and becoming data-driven in a way that also sees a near-term value. Tanvi paints a picture of how to bear both near-team value and long-term value in mind and the long lumbering path from where banks are today to a place of real digital fluency.

Today we are discussing the topic of anti-money laundering, a primary regulatory concern for financial services organizations. Our guest is Dr. Scott Nowson, Artificial Intelligence Leader at PwC. PwC is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. In this episode, Scott dives in on reducing false positives for anti-money laundering. Whether you’re focused on cyber security, payment fraud, or financial crime, the work of analysts is primarily looking at elements that inherently don’t have any risks. They have to dig through things like our transactions and online activity to identify cases that represent a financial and regulatory risk. Scott emphasizes how artificial intelligence impacts the analytics experience before and after. To access Emerj’s frameworks for AI readiness, ROI and strategy, visit Emerj Plus: emerj.com/p1.

Today’s guest is Stefan Boronea, CTO of Proportunity. Proportunity is a London-based firm focused on home lending and the future of finance. The topic of this episode is the future of lending and extending credit risk for lenders. In this interview, Stefan discusses the current trends in credit lending and where the gaps might be filled in with AI and data in the years ahead. Stefan also joined us on The AI in Business Podcast about three weeks ago, where he discussed the valuation of homes and several related use-cases in depth. If you’d like to listen to Stefan’s other episode and check out more insights from hundreds of business leaders, be sure to subscribe to The AI in Business Podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Today’s guest is Julien Cerutti, Vice President for Sales & Client Success, Enterprise Americas at Meltwater. Meltwater is a financial services company that focuses on drawing insights from outside data sources from various sources. Our focus this week is the topic of unlocking the power of external data. In this episode, Julien discusses a particular use-case that will be relevant in areas like wealth management as well as other business functions such as brand management, improving customer service, and more. Our conversation with Julien was recorded about a year ago, and while the market may have changed a bit since then, his insights are certainly relevant for business leaders navigating the industry today. If you’d like to discover critical AI applications and trends, be sure to download our whitepaper “3 Ways to Discover AI Trends” at emerj.com/t3.