Podcast
AI in Financial Services Podcast
Hosted by Daniel Faggella · EN
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
28episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Scaling Trust in the Next Era of Insurance - with Kiruba Eswaran of Eleos Life
Feb 900:24:14Tap to summarizeToday'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.
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Why Siloed Fraud and AML Systems Are Failing Financial Institutions - with Debjit Saha of MoneyGram
Jan 2600:23:07Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Debjit Saha, VP of Engineering & Product for Risk & Compliance at MoneyGram. Debjit focuses on building data- and AI-driven controls for fraud, compliance, and payments decisioning. Debjit joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how financial institutions can unify fraud, AML, and sanctions data amid rising costs, regulatory scrutiny, and sophisticated threats. Debjit also highlights practical steps for enterprise leaders: standardize tooling to bridge silos, shift to model-based detection to reduce false positives, and implement tiered human-in-the-loop controls for greater compliance efficiency. 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!
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How Payments Firms Secure AI While Meeting Regulatory Demands - with Debjit Saha of MoneyGram
Jan 1200:22:46Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Debjit Saha, VP of Engineering & Product for Risk & Compliance at MoneyGram. Debjit focuses on building data- and AI-driven controls for fraud, compliance, and payments decisioning. Debjit joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how payments teams can modernize risk and compliance as fraud grows more sophisticated, customer tolerance for friction shrinks, and regulators demand stronger explainability. Debjit also highlights pragmatic steps leaders can take to build credibility quickly—starting with high-impact use cases, designing for auditability, and placing human oversight where it matters most. 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! If you're interested in unlocking our AI best practice guides, frameworks for AI ROI, and specific resources for AI consultants, visit emerj.com/p1.
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Reducing Friction and Fraud in Financial Services Onboarding – with Mary Ann Miller of Prove
Dec 2900:24:41Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Mary Ann Miller, VP and Fraud Executive Advisor at Prove. Mary Ann brings extensive experience in fraud prevention, identity risk, and digital onboarding across financial services. Mary Ann joins Emerj Senior Editor, Marilie Fouchè, to discuss how financial institutions are applying data and AI to modernize customer onboarding while managing fraud, risk, and regulatory requirements. Mary Ann also breaks down how AI-driven identity verification can automate manual checks, safely support data pre-fill, and flag suspicious or non-human activity earlier in the onboarding process. The conversation highlights how these workflow changes can reduce operational burden, lower customer abandonment, and improve fraud outcomes without slowing down legitimate customers. 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! Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.
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Driving Trust and Community Through Technology in Credit Unions – with Nicole Haverly at nCino
Dec 1500:30:12Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Nicole Haverly, Vice President of Credit Unions at nCino. nCino is a provider of intelligent banking solutions. Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, the company helps banks and credit unions modernize and streamline core banking tasks, empowering financial institutions of all sizes globally to deliver faster, more intelligent, and customer-friendly banking experiences. Nicole joins Emerj Senior Editor, Marilie Fouché, to discuss how credit unions can balance community-focused member experiences with the growing demand for digital-first engagement. Nicole also explains practical ways automation and AI can streamline account opening and lending, reduce manual data entry, and allow staff to focus on deeper, high-value member interactions, driving measurable results in efficiency, product adoption, and member retention. 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!
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Balancing Personalization and Trust in AI-Driven Customer Experience - with Kyle Hathorn of FNBO
Dec 100:22:30Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Kyle Hathorn, Director of Customer Experience and Strategy at the First National Bank of Omaha. FNBO is a regional bank founded in 1857 that provides retail and commercial banking services across eight states. Kyle brings extensive experience in designing customer journeys and integrating technology to meet evolving expectations. Kyle joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to discuss how financial services leaders can leverage data and AI to create seamless, personalized, and human-centered customer experiences. He also shares practical strategies for measuring engagement, optimizing workflows, and scaling AI-driven personalization while maintaining trust and compliance. 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! Learn how brands work with Emerj and other Emerj Media options at emerj.com/ad1.
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Balancing Friction and Growth in Digital Fraud Strategy - with Karan Gandhi at Best Egg
Nov 1700:21:21Tap to summarizeToday's guest is Karan Gandhi, Senior Director for Verification and Fraud at Best Egg. Best Egg is a consumer lending platform focused on responsible, data-driven credit access. Karan joins Emerj Editorial Director Matthew DeMello to explore how deepfakes, synthetic identities, bot attacks, and agentic systems are reshaping the fraud landscape and what these shifts mean for data and AI strategy in financial services. Karan also breaks down the practical steps enterprises can take to strengthen verification workflows, leverage metadata and OCR analysis more effectively, and frame fraud-prevention ROI in a way that secures executive buy-in for modernizing their technology stack. 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! 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!
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The Future of AI Competition in Financial Services After DeepSeek's Breakthrough - with Sudeep Kesh and Martin Whitworth of S&P Global Ratings
Nov 300:26:11Tap to summarizeThe introduction of DeepSeek's R1 large language model has sparked global discussion about what happens when open-source innovation meets geopolitical constraints. What does this mean for financial markets, AI development, and the future of global competition? In this episode of the 'AI in Financial Services' podcast, host Matthew DeMello speaks with Sudeep Kesh, Chief Innovation Officer at S&P Global Ratings, and Martin Whitworth, Lead Cyber Expert at S&P Global Ratings, about how DeepSeek's model reveals the evolving relationship between resource constraints, innovation, and risk management in AI. The conversation explores the technological breakthroughs behind DeepSeek's design, why open-source transparency changes the game for enterprise leaders, and how regulatory intentions often create new innovation cycles. 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! 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!
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The Rise of Generative AI-Enabled Financial Crime - with Sophia Qureshi of Provenir
Mar 10, 202500:26:40Tap to summarizeToday’s guest is Sophia Qureshi, VP of Product Management for Fraud Solutions at Provenir. Provenir is a fintech company whose AI decisioning platform helps clients manage credit risk, prevent fraud, and stay compliant across the customer lifecycle. Sophia joins the podcast to discuss the evolving threat landscape and how AI is changing the balance of power. Later, she explains how fraud detection has traditionally relied on deterministic technologies like anomaly detection and how the rise of generative AI has enabled more sophisticated fraud tactics, from deepfake identity forgeries to large-scale phishing campaigns. 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!
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Use Cases in AI-Driven Personal Insurance - with Matt Marolda of Acrisure
Feb 24, 202500:19:06Tap to summarizeToday’s guest is Matt Marolda, Chief Innovation Officer at Acrisure. Acrisure is a global insurance broker and fintech financial services provider. Matt returns to the program this week to explore the impact of AI on industry practices, from streamlining workflows to automating customer interactions and enhancing decision-making with predictive analytics. Our discussion examines how AI can process data more efficiently, identifying patterns in customer behavior and refining risk assessments. 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!
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