Ep. 044 - FinTech Simplified with Product Director at Visa, Piers Marais
Financial Technology is moving at breakneck speed with digital banks, cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence reimagining what we know about finance.
Who better to shed light on this exhilarating sector, and how to keep up with its opportunities, than Visa’s Product Director, Piers Marais.
We break misconceptions, gaze into the near-future with new technologies, and spot the pitfalls to watch out for, whether you’re an individual or a business introducing FinTech into your life.
Key takeaways from this episode:
FinTech is about inclusion, accessibility and customer centricity
There’s a shift from ‘command & control’ to ‘coaching and personal development’
AI promises to analyse data to create more personalised experiences
Gary Gamp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garygamp
George Clode: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeclode
Piers Marais: https://www.linkedin.com/in/piersmarais/
Highlights:
“Once you start looking at using technology like AI to analyse huge data sets, and to start providing personalised experiences to you as a consumer of that particular application (or even as a business user), you start to get far, far better experiences. ” - 4:15 - Piers Marais
“We've seen over the past few years that the technology that these cryptocurrencies are built on, sometimes called blockchain or distributed ledger technology, have proven to be in certain aspects a really innovative technology, but are really struggling in certain cases to solve the actual customer problems that we're seeing.” - 9:30 - Piers Marais
“There’s a huge opportunity for AI to continue transforming what’s happening. It’s about leveraging data and using AI to help bring that experience wherever we’re going next.” - 16:25 - Piers Marais
“There’s lots of FinTech options out there, so you need to be clear on what you’re trying to achieve.” - 23:30 - Piers Marais
“FinTech is about financial inclusion, it's about accessibility, and it is about customer centricity - putting the customer first in everything you do.” - 26:15 - Piers Marais
