The Fintech Power 50 Annual 2025

The trust imperative and banking’s AI race In a world where algorithm optimises every aspect of our lives, what remains distinctly human?

When every financial institution can access similar technological capabilities, when algorithms can anticipate every user’s needs and optimise every

finance? As I ask in my book, Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence , can purpose, profit and responsibility find harmony in an AI-led world? AI as the new OS The reality is that AI is not magic. The most successful transformations won’t come from organisations that deploy AI fastest, but from those that reimagine their fundamental purpose with AI at the core. How may that look when AI becomes the operating system of our lives? Imagine lending process designed from scratch, with AI orchestrating every touchpoint. Not just automated approval processes (aka digital versions of our analog processes), but systems that understand life context, anticipate needs, and connect borrowers with broader ecosystems of support. What if a financial institution doesn’t just extend loans to medical students, but connects them with practicing physicians, facilitates the process of finding a practice, and provides wealth management services as their careers evolve? Or how about longevity planning across healthcare demands, housing needs, and long-term care cost, personalised to one’s health condition, financial burden, and across family networks? As life expectancy increases and the number of family caregivers soar, we must provide better solutions for generations to plan ahead and to better anticipate the needs of a growing population of people living the reality of caring for their loved ones. In this new paradigm, data isn’t just an asset. It is the means of value creation – life- stage orchestration powered by customer centricity and AI-native thinking. Consider the modern consumer’s financial reality: managing complex, intergenerational responsibilities that span business needs, children’s education costs, retirement planning, long term care costs, and elder care. Our current systems fragment this reality across multiple institutions and platforms. And this fragmentation isn’t just inconvenient – it limits the holistic financial guidance that

consumers need to manage their daily lives. AI could potentially serve as the orchestration layer that brings these services together and more, not just during major milestones, but moments in between. Organisations that thrive won’t be those with the most data, but those that embrace platform thinking, create environments where partners can build value-added services much like Apple’s App Store enabled an entire ecosystem of mobile applications, and orchestrate the platform most effectively to deliver value throughout the life stage of the customer. Trust is not built by code As we race towards an AI-led digital future, the ultimate competitive advantage won’t be how sophisticated our algorithms are – it will be how much we trust and value each other, where authentic human connections become the most valuable currency. Those that will define banking’s next chapter won’t necessarily be the first mover of technology, but those with the humility to learn, the imagination to build new features rather than defend old processes, and the courage to collaborate across traditional boundaries. They will be institutions that recognise AI not just as a tech tool, but as a new lens through which banking services can be transformed to meet human needs.

decision, what differentiates one current account from another?

One word: Trust. Not the superficial trust built through regulatory compliance or marketing campaigns – but earned trust that comes from consistently demonstrating genuine commitment to long term relationships, over short-term self-serving corporate gains and value extraction. Beyond the hype Consider what an operating system does: it manages resources, enables applications to run, handles data flows, and protects system integrity. Now imagine AI functioning at this foundational level, not as an add-on to existing processes, but as the core infrastructure that orchestrates everything from data flows to relationships and compliance. Yet, most financial institutions are still bolting AI onto legacy systems with tech debt running deeper than most want to admit. And as institutions race to deploy AI solutions, we are avoiding the fundamental questions that we should be asking: Building the future we want? When every financial decision becomes algorithmic, when AI determines who deserves credit and who doesn’t, when machines optimise for efficiency over equity, what kind of society are we building? Are we preserving space for the nuanced understanding that comes from diverse lived experience? Who gets left behind? The concentration of AI capabilities among the tech giants creates stark inequalities. When small banks can’t compete with institutions that can afford proprietary AI systems and expert talents, are we truly democratising

Theodora Lau is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, a public speaker, and an advisor. She is the author of Banking on (Artificial)

Intelligence (2025), the co-author of The Metaverse Economy (2023) a nd Beyond Good (2021), and host of One Vision, a podcast on fintech and innovation. She is named one of American Banker’s Most Influential Women in FinTech, and she is a contributor and commentator for top industry events and publications. www.linkedin.com/in/theodoralau