Announcing Generative NYC: Fintech in AI

AI continues to captivate the minds of founders, product builders, and technologists. Lightspeed has been hosting a series of events across NYC, LA, and SF to bring together this dynamic community focused on building the future of generative technology. The events, like the meetups of the web2 era a decade ago, have served to connect, educate, inform, and inspire those working in the space.

Which is why we’re excited to announce the next iteration of our Generative series, exploring the potential of AI within fintech and financial services:

Generative NYC: Fintech in AI will be live in New York from 6-9pm on August 15th at the Lightspeed office in Union Square. To apply to attend, sign up here. To apply to demo a product, please fill out this form.

We’ll be hosting a conversation with Leif Abraham, co-founder and co-CEO of Public.com, Grace Liu, Director of Product at Alloy, and Sasha Orloff, founder and CEO of Puzzle. Our moderator will be Justin Overdorff, Partner and Co-Lead of Lightspeed’s Fintech Practice. The discussion will explore how these builders and their companies are leveraging AI, and the opportunities for AI in the fintech arena.

During this event, we’ll dive into the transformative power of generative AI and explore the diverse applications it offers, from risk management and fraud detection to personalized services and investment strategies. Our goal is to showcase success stories and demonstrate how AI-driven solutions can give companies a distinct competitive edge in the ever-evolving financial market.

In our recently published perspective on AI’s role within Fintech and Financial Services, we write that the financial services community has been an early adopter of AI and machine learning technology. From FinCEN in the 1990s with FAIS (FinCEN Artificial Intelligence System) to the introduction of high-frequency trading in the early 2000s – there have been several pivotal moments when financial institutions began using machine learning algorithms and AI. Since then, AI has been extensively integrated across various business functions (fraud / risk, compliance, customer service, etc.), technology applications (such as AIOps), and cybersecurity within financial services. The sector’s inherent need to detect real-time anomalies and surface critical insights aligns naturally with AI capabilities, as market shifts, risks, and opportunities can emerge at any given moment.

Nonetheless, despite the clear and numerous use cases for AI within financial services, the sector’s heavily regulated nature and low margin for error with respect to computational accuracy creates a challenging environment to deploy Generative AI at scale. 

Indeed, Accenture’s “Art of AI Maturity” report ranked financial services as the last industry in both current and future AI usage. Hurdles in the sector include acquiring large and diverse datasets necessary for proper model training, and the industry’s cautious approach, preferring human intervention over machine dependency. While these obstacles pose challenges, they also present a significant opportunity for financial service institutions that successfully implement AI-driven solutions to gain a competitive advantage in the market.

At Lightspeed, we are default optimists when it comes to technology. We are excited about the innovation and endless possibilities that AI brings to fintech and financial services, and we are confident that generative AI will revolutionize the industry landscape.

By overcoming data limitations, improving risk management, enhancing fraud detection, enabling personalization, and refining investment strategies, financial institutions can leverage generative models to create additional data points that expand the size and diversity of their datasets. They will be empowered to train more accurate and robust machine learning models, ultimately improving the quality of predictions and decision-making processes.

This gathering will bring together visionary fintech founders and industry leaders who are pioneering the use of AI in financial services. Generative NYC: Fintech in AI will foster knowledge sharing, collaboration, and networking among like-minded individuals passionate about leveraging AI to drive financial sector innovation.

We invite all founders and product builders who are exploring or working on AI-based solutions in fintech to join us on August 15th. Together, let’s embrace the opportunities presented by AI, paving the way for a future where fintech and financial services unlock the possibilities of this exciting new technology.

If you’d like to register to attend, sign up here. Also, if you’re part of a local team that’s interested in demoing your fintech + AI product, please fill out this form.