AI in Financial Services Podcast

Hosted by Daniel Faggella

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Episodes

194

Latest episode

Jun 2026

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About the show

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

Listen to episodes

60 recent

June 15, 202628 min

AI Assistants and Preparedness Among Enterprises - with Chris Cadwell of Concentrix

Enterprises rushing agentic AI into production are running it through approval gates, batch windows, and audit systems built for human speed — and the gap is where most operational risk lives. In this episode, Chris Caldwell, President and CEO at Concentrix Corporation, examines how machine-scale transactions break processes designed for human pace and why bounded digital delegates outperform unrestricted digital twins in the enterprise. The discussion covers compliance bots that check other bots, the cost reality of poorly tuned agentic agents, and what leaders need to stop doing if they want a defensible AI roadmap. Learn how to evaluate AI vendors by assessing leadership expertise, and why funding benchmarks can signal product maturity and stability, download our free PDF report, "5 Ways to Select the Right AI Vendor," at emerj.com/aiv2.

June 1, 202636 min

The AI Driven Finance Stack for High Growth Financial Services - with Henry Ward of Carta

A fundamental shift is emerging as AI moves core financial operations away from traditional web interfaces and into AI‑native cloud‑desktop environments, redefining how CFO teams execute and manage workflows. In this episode, Henry Ward, founder and CEO at Carta, examines how this transition changes the CFO operating model alongside host Daniel Faggella, highlighting why AI‑literate finance leaders gain leverage by orchestrating reporting, close processes, and analysis directly through agent‑driven systems. The discussion outlines how reusable AI skills, shared operational source files, and automated coordination reshape month‑end close, reporting agility, and cross‑team execution for modern finance organizations. To go deeper on this topic and learn how financial institutions are digitizing paper-based records to unlock usable data for AI, and using alternative data like public web and social signals to enhance risk assessment, download our free PDF report, "AI in Financial Services Executive Cheat Sheet" at emerj.com/fcs2

May 18, 202630 min

How the AI-Native Bank Stops Adding Pilots and Starts Industrializing - with Jeremy Caine of IBM

AI programs in financial services don't fail at the model; they fail at the seam between pilot and production, where data, integration discipline, and ownership decide whether anything reaches scale. In this episode, Jeremy Caine, Technology Strategy and Solution Leader at IBM, unpacks why banks and insurers get stuck in pilot purgatory and what an AI-native future state actually looks like in a regulated environment. The conversation covers a data product strategy that surfaces the data that matters for the use case, the industrialized software delivery lifecycle required to move AI into production, a platform-led architecture built on open foundations and automation, and the operating model shifts senior leaders need to make to convert AI investment into durable business capability. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at http://go.emerj.com/partner

May 5, 202615 min

AI‑Ready Underwriting Operations While Maintaining Decision Consistency - with Barbara Stacer of Utica National Insurance Group

Stabilizing the operational environment around underwriting judgment is the shift that enables decisions to move into the market with greater speed, consistency, and control. In this episode, Barbara Stacer, Vice President, Head of Small Commercial Underwriting and Underwriting Operations at Utica National Insurance Group, examines how governed versioning, traceable approvals, and embedded documentation close the execution gap that slows pricing changes after they leave actuarial. She outlines the practical steps leaders can take to reduce queue time, strengthen auditability, and ensure pricing updates reach production when they matter most. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at https://go.emerj.com/partner1

April 20, 202627 min

Turning Infrastructure from Bottleneck to Business Enabler for AI - With Juan Orlandini of Insight

AI infrastructure projects are failing not because the technology underdelivers, but because organizations commit capital before establishing the business case. In this episode, Juan Orlandini, CTO at Insight, examines why enterprise AI programs stall and outlines how leaders can apply decades of established IT investment discipline to evaluate, validate, and scale AI initiatives with measurable outcomes in mind. The conversation covers organizational change management across employee adoption segments, the application of FinOps principles to AI infrastructure spending, and a minimum viable proof of concept approach for validating AI investments before scaling. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at http://go.emerj.com/partner.

April 6, 202625 min

How Intelligent Systems Accelerate Enterprise Decisions - with Amar Akshat of Paysafe

Architectural decision‑making in large enterprises can break down when system knowledge is fragmented, slowing delivery and creating inconsistent outcomes across teams. In this episode, Amar Akshat, Senior Vice President of Architecture at PaySafe, examines how codified organizational memory and deterministic guardrails enable intelligent systems to accelerate development without sacrificing control. He highlights the shift toward machine‑readable decision records, intent‑driven interfaces, and standardized design patterns that help enterprises reduce drift, strengthen compliance, and move faster with greater confidence. Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at http://go.emerj.com/partner

March 23, 202616 min

How AI Is Reshaping Regulated Professional Workflows - with Steve Hasker of Thomson Reuters

Regulated industries are facing mounting pressure to adopt AI while maintaining absolute accuracy, data protection, and clear human accountability. In this episode, Steve Hasker, CEO at Thomson Reuters, joins Emerj's Matthew DeMello to examine how these demands are reshaping expectations for model reliability, data isolation, and the future of high‑stakes regulatory work. The discussion highlights the need for transparent guardrails, expert‑trained systems, and new approaches to handling large‑scale filings without compromising oversight. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click go.emerj.com/expert1 for more information and to be a potential future guest on Emerj's flagship 'AI in Business' podcast! Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at go.emerj.com/partner

March 9, 202628 min

Defending Bank Onboarding Against Evolving Risk with Mary Ann Miller of Prove

Modern enterprise leaders face a critical strategic challenge in balancing seamless digital onboarding with the increasing threat of sophisticated, AI-driven fraud. In this episode, Mary Ann Miller, VP of Client Experience and Fraud Advisor at Prove, unpacks why a robust "welcome mat" strategy centered on high-assurance identity verification enables the safe scaling of high-value services and drives institutional ROI. The conversation examines the implementation of endpoint bot protection to counter agentic AI attacks, the transition to intelligent data pre-fill to reduce abandonment, and the role of tokenized identity in creating a persistent, frictionless customer experience. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/e2 for more information and to be a potential future guest on Emerj's flagship 'AI in Business' podcast.

February 23, 202627 min

From Pilots to Production in The New Era of Tokenized Finance with Tal Elyashiv of SPiCE VC

Today's guest is Tal Elyashiv, Co-founder and Managing Partner at SPiCE VC. Tal joins Emerj's Nick Gertsch to explore how tokenization is moving from pilot programs into institutional-scale deployment — and what that means for settlement infrastructure, governance, and enterprise AI strategy in regulated financial systems. They discuss the real signals of production readiness, where AI is generating measurable ROI today (from compliance monitoring to customer operations), and why identity verification and human-in-the-loop controls are becoming mission-critical as AI-driven fraud accelerates. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.expert for more information and to be a potential future guest on Emerj's flagship 'AI in Business' podcast!

February 9, 202624 min

Scaling Trust in the Next Era of Insurance - with Kiruba Eswaran of Eleos Life

Today's guest is Kiruba Eswaran, CEO at Eleos Life. Eleos Life provides a fully digital platform for life and disability insurance. The platform offers 24/7 AI-guided assistance to help users navigate the application process, compare options, and manage coverage. It also includes optional wellness-related perks available to eligible customers. Kiruba joins Emerj Client Narrative & Content Strategy Lead, Nick Gertsch, to discuss how data and AI are reshaping insurance distribution, from improving customer education at scale to embedding protection at the right moments inside modern digital ecosystems. Kiruba also shares practical takeaways on where AI is driving real ROI, including scaling compliant policy support, increasing conversion through comprehension and "positive friction," and reserving human advisors for the empathy-heavy moments that require deeper personalization. Want to share your AI adoption story with executive peers? Click emerj.com/expert for more information and to be a potential future guest on Emerj's flagship 'AI in Business' podcast! Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/mediakit.