The tapestry of financial innovation is one that continues to evolve and reshape the landscape of banking and fintech. The Finovate Podcast, hosted by the erudite Greg Palmer, stands at the frontier of this evolution, offering listeners an inside glimpse into the minds that are redefining the boundaries of financial services. Over recent weeks, Greg has engaged in compelling dialogues with the brilliant minds behind the companies that took home the Best of Show awards at FinovateSpring in May. These conversations illuminated the innovative use of artificial intelligence in banking, the promising future of small business lending, and pivotal advancements in financial wellness, debt collection, and credit building.
In the latest instalment of Greg’s enlightening podcast series, we dive into the groundbreaking contributions of companies striving to harness the potential of AI to create tangible value for banks. Greg’s conversation with Maya Mikhailov, the visionary CEO of SAVVI AI, sheds light on this endeavor. Mikhailov’s journey is a fascinating blend of industry expertise and a passionate commitment to leveraging AI for enhancing banking operations. Episode 222 of the podcast becomes a window into the motivation behind SAVVI AI – a venture aimed at democratizing access to AI technologies, enabling banks and fintechs to deploy goal-driven solutions without the convoluted need for extensive resources, specialists, or complex integrations.
“Prior to starting SAVVI, I ran an AI division at Synchrony Financial, where we built AI products for the banking and credit teams. And since leaving Synchrony, I was really on a mission to get AI and to get machine learning into more teams’ hands, to let them use this powerful technology and tool to accomplish their business goals.
Because, frankly, we really saw it working. And now it was a question of ‘we need more people to be using this because it is such a powerful tool to turn data into decisions.’ And that was the genesis behind SAVVI: to be a tool that helps any bank or fintech build and launch their own goal-driven use cases without the need for heavy resources, specialists, or complicated integrations.”
Established in 2021, SAVVI AI emerges as a beacon of innovation, helping banks, credit unions, and fintechs to rapidly develop and manage AI applications through its patented Practical AI platform. This revolutionary technology propels financial service entities into the AI sphere without the prerequisites of an extensive dataset, data scientists, or core system modifications. SAVVI’s headquarters, located in the vibrant city of Chicago, Illinois, becomes the epicenter from where this transformative journey unfolds.
Furthermore, Greg Palmer explores the horizon of debt collection and credit restoration with Gwyneth Borden, CEO of Remynt. In Episode 221, they discuss how Remynt’s novel approach is not only empowering consumers to mend their credit but also revolutionizing the way debts are collected. Borden’s personal navigation through financial delinquency to devising a system that aligns the interests of creditors with the needs of consumers paints a tale of innovation born from adversity.
“Remynt empowers consumers to rebuild credit while resolving delinquent debt. What does that mean? (We) are a debt-buying collector, buying non-performing charge-offs. We are also collecting on them on contingency from banks, credit unions, and fintechs.
I got into this space in a way you would not expect: I came in from a vantage point of having experienced delinquency and charge-off. (I was) looking at everything that’s wrong with how debt collection works and how the incentives are misaligned between what the creditor of debt buyers would like and what the consumer needs.”
In 2022, Remynt, based in the culturally rich city of San Francisco, California, emerged as a pioneer, crafting a digital-first platform for debt recovery that prioritizes the collective benefit of creditors and consumers alike. This approach allows creditors to reclaim revenues from non-performing delinquencies while offering consumers a pathway to financial recovery that respects their dignity and circumstances.
The journey into the future of small business lending through the lens of artificial intelligence continues with Greg’s interaction with Lukas Haffer, CEO and Co-Founder of Cascading AI. In their rich dialogue captured in Episode 220, Haffer shares his extensive experience in banking and his subsequent deep dive into AI and machine learning at Stanford. This unique amalgamation of banking acumen and technological savvy laid the groundwork for Cascading AI, which is at the forefront of revolutionizing loan origination for small and commercial businesses by slashing through the red tape and manual processes that have long encumbered the industry.
“My background is deep in the banking sector. I spent my whole career building, maintaining, and developing core banking systems. That’s not a career I can recommend to anyone; core banking systems are a pain. But it did give me a pretty solid understanding how the underlying IT infrastructure of a bank really works.
You pair that with two years of machine learning and AI research at Stanford and you get a pretty unique combination of skills to go back into the banking sector and automate a lot of the manual repetitive tasks that people used to do on top of our software. Now, with the advent of large language models, you really can automate.”
