Future Tech Banker is hosted by Alec Crawford, Eric Cook, and Jack Hubbard. Together, they bring deep experience in banking, digital strategy, risk, business development, and industry leadership. The podcast explores the trends, technologies, and ideas shaping the future of community banking, with conversations focused on innovation, growth, leadership, customer experience, and the future of the industry. This podcast is sponsored by Verapath, WSI, and Saint Meyer & Hubbard. Podcast production and sound engineering are by Troutman Street Audio. You can find them on LinkedIn.
In this first episode, the hosts introduce the show and welcome John Kowal, Chief Technology Officer of Peapack Private Bank & Trust, a community bank serving the New Jersey and New York City metro market. Kowal outlines his role overseeing technology, operations support, training, innovation, and the bank’s AI team, and explains how the bank has approached AI over several years. The conversation centers on practical applications of AI in banking, including cybersecurity readiness, data analysis, workflow support, digital employees, and meeting-preparation tools for commercial and wealth teams. Kowal emphasizes that community banks do not need mega-bank scale to benefit from AI, but they do need internal expertise, governance, training, and trusted vendor partnerships. The hosts also discuss cultural adoption, the risks of shadow AI, hallucination, compliance expectations, and the importance of keeping humans in the loop for regulated decisions. The episode closes with a broader discussion of how AI may reshape competition in community banking, while also raising concerns around fraud, cyber risk, and customer protection.
Summary:
- AI adoption in banking: The discussion explores how banks can use AI to improve internal workflows, analytics, and employee productivity.
- Community bank AI strategy: John Kowal describes how Peapack Private Bank & Trust is using AI for analytics, internal workflows, and operational improvement.
- Risk and governance: The discussion highlights cybersecurity, shadow AI, hallucination risk, enterprise controls, and the need for clear AI inventories and oversight.
- Culture and training: The speakers stress that successful AI adoption depends on ongoing employee training, internal champions, and business-line engagement.
- Competitive impact: The episode frames AI as a chance for community banks to improve client service, increase banker productivity, and compete more effectively.
Referenced in this episode:
Companies
- Future Tech Banker
- Peapack Private Bank & Trust
- Verapath
- WSI
- Saint Meyer & Hubbard
- Goldman Sachs
- Morgan Stanley
- Anthropic
- ChatGPT
- JPMorgan
- McKinsey
- Amazon
- Montclair State University
- Fairleigh Dickinson University
Regulators / Industry Bodies
- FDIC
- NIST
- Cyber Risk Institute
- Graduate School of Banking in Madison
- Florida Bankers Association
- Pennsylvania Bankers Association
Technologies
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- AI agents
- Digital employees
- AI chatbots
- Data warehouse
- Cybersecurity
- Zero-day exploits
- Ransomware
- Enterprise AI
- Data loss prevention (DLP)
- CRM
- Blockchain
- Stablecoin
- Crypto ATMs
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