Within the run-up to FinovateFall, which takes place on September 9 by 11 in New York, we requested a number of audio system for his or her views on applied sciences shaping monetary companies, the largest challenges going through banks, and why they maintain coming again to Finovate.
Beneath is a preview of what 4 audio system needed to say forward of this 12 months’s occasion.
Michael Reynolds, Enterprise Know-how Government at KeyBank

Michael Reynolds leads clever automation at KeyBank, the place he oversees robotic course of automation, clever doc processing, low-code improvement, and generative AI initiatives. Beneath his management, KeyBank’s digital workforce now performs the equal of greater than 500 workers’ value of labor.
Why Finovate?
“Finovate is among the few conferences the place you’ll be able to see actual, working expertise, not idea slides. The reside demo format lets banks rapidly assess what’s production-ready, establish rising fintech companions, and evaluate innovation throughout a number of classes in only a few days. Finovate highlights a whole bunch of fintech demos and attracts a big viewers of banking decision-makers, making it a extremely sensible venue for each studying and networking.”
What is going to banks have to prioritize over the subsequent 18 months?
“Banks might want to prioritize AI-powered productiveness and agentic automation. The winners can be establishments that mix AI with sturdy governance, safety, and operational integration, not these merely deploying chatbots.”
The place is AI making the largest affect at present?
“Inside our group, probably the most rapid affect is in operations and worker productiveness: automating handbook processes, accelerating information retrieval, bettering service supply, and serving to groups focus extra time on greater worth work whereas sustaining applicable controls and oversight.”
Sam Kilmer, Managing Director at Cornerstone Advisors

Sam Kilmer leads Cornerstone Advisors’ work with fintechs, monetary establishments, and personal fairness companies. A longtime banking govt and host of the Fintech Hustle podcast, he spends a lot of his time serving to organizations navigate innovation and partnerships.
Why Finovate?
“Finovate is fast-paced, so likes hit quick and dislikes are over rapidly. It exposes me to loads of earlier stage corporations.”
What ought to the trade concentrate on subsequent?
“Banks might want to enhance exhibiting outcomes and storytelling authentically to face out from more and more AI-generated content material and claims.”
Andrew Endicott, CoFounder at Gilgamesh Ventures

Andrew Endicott is Co-Founding father of Gilgamesh Ventures, an early-stage fintech enterprise capital agency investing globally in corporations from pre-seed by Collection A. Earlier than turning into an investor, he co-founded bank card fintech Petal and not too long ago authored the e-book Is Finance Know-how?
Why Finovate?
“Nice combine of economic establishments and fintechs multi functional place. Actually excited to be a part of it.”
What monetary companies drawback nonetheless wants fixing?
“There are various issues in finance which can be unsolved, however I really feel that wire transfers are an enormous one.”
Katherine Avery, Founder at Chimayo Consulting

Katherine Avery is founding father of Chimayo Consulting and a veteran enterprise threat govt with greater than twenty years of expertise spanning banking, capital markets, commodities, digital belongings, and AI governance. She helps monetary establishments construct governance frameworks that maintain tempo with quickly evolving expertise.
Why Finovate?
“Finovate earns its place as a result of it’s practitioner pushed quite than vendor theater. The demos are reside and unscripted, judged by individuals who truly implement this expertise, which forces a stage of rigorother conferences don’t demand.”
What ought to banks prioritize over the subsequent 18 months?
“Banks have to operationalize AI governance now, not after deployment. The establishments that deal with mannequin threat administration, explainability, and third celebration AI oversight as foundational, quite than bolted on post-launch, would be the ones nonetheless standingwhen regulators catch as much as the tempo of adoption, which they are going to inside this window.”
What’s one change you consider will essentially reshape fintech within the subsequent 5 years?
“The change I consider will essentially reshape fintech within the subsequent 5 years is the shift from AI as a discrete device to AI as an embedded determination maker throughout underwriting, monitoring, and buyer interplay. That shift collapses the previous boundary between innovation and threat capabilities. Governance can now not sit downstream of deployment.”
What’s one fintech pattern you consider will speed up within the closing quarter of 2026?
“One pattern I count on to speed up in This fall 2026 is the transfer towards agentic AI in again workplace and compliance capabilities. Establishments are getting extra comfy letting AI take bounded, delegated actions in monitoring and management testing, and that consolation willkeep constructing by 12 months finish.”
What’s one drawback in monetary companies that fintech nonetheless hasn’t solved properly sufficient but?
“The issue fintech nonetheless hasn’t solved properly sufficient is third celebration threat visibility. Banks are stitching collectively extra distributors and platforms than ever, and most threat frameworks nonetheless can’t see deep sufficient into that provide chain to catch focus or contagion threat earlier than it turns into an actual occasion, not only a checkbox on an evaluation.”
See them on stage at FinovateFall
These are only a few of the views you’ll hear at FinovateFall this September. From AI governance and clever automation to enterprise investing and rising fintech tendencies, our audio system deliver firsthand expertise from the establishments constructing—and funding—the way forward for monetary companies.
Browse the complete agenda and register at present to listen to these specialists, watch reside fintech demos, and join with leaders from throughout the banking and fintech ecosystem.
Picture by Leeloo The First
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