Provoke.fm Media

The future in Dubai is so brilliant, you need sunglasses. This week Brett and Rob talk to their colleague and business partner Mohamed Alkhatib about the key findings and hot topics they covered at the first Futurists X Summit. Why Dubai?  Learn about the bold steps that the United Arab Emirates is taking to foster future prosperity with applied imagination? Giant data centers, advances in AI models, asteroid mining, next generation energy, future transportation and city planning, biotech and programmable biology, smart infrastructure and city scale digital twins.

Dr. Antoine Khadige, Senior Partner at Strategy+ GCC, and Mohamed AlSabea, Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer at barq, join host Brett King for a special episode, live from The Money Pot studio at Money20/20 Middle East in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Together, they share insights on the Gulf’s fintech transformation and on Riyadh’s growing reputation as the gateway to one of the world’s fastest-moving financial markets, where global players and regional decision-makers come together to build what’s next.

It’s an interesting discussion as the trio unpack Saudi Arabia’s dynamic fintech ecosystem and share the success story that is barq. Barq is the fastest growing private wallet / digital bank in the world with 8M users in just 1 year. They share insights on barq’s success, some of its secret sauce and plans for the future.

Regulation, digital infrastructure, youthful demographics and public trust have made the GCC a fertile ground for next-generation finance. From embedded finance and AI-driven personalization to the region’s broader Vision 2030 transformation, this conversation captures the determination and optimism fueling Saudi Arabia’s emergence as a global fintech powerhouse.

Is the Gulf the “new Europe” for fintech innovation? With determination and bold leadership driving transformation, the region’s financial future is only beginning.

FinovateFall Best of Show winner Vertice AI: Using AI to help smaller FI’s punch above their weight.

Detailed Summary:

In this episode, Greg catches up with Mitch Rutledge, CEO and co-founder of Vertice AI, who won Best of Show at FinovateFall. Mitch starts out by discussing his company’s mission to empower community financial institutions through AI-powered solutions. Vertice serves as an AI-driven growth engine that transforms institutional data into actionable insights, enabling smaller community banks and credit unions to compete effectively with larger financial institutions. The platform specifically targets community FIs with lean marketing teams, helping them deliver personalized customer engagement and measurable growth outcomes. Rutledge emphasizes that while big banks like Bank of America employ over 3,000 data scientists and JP Morgan invests over $4 billion in AI, community banks possess a crucial advantage: the trust factor that can be leveraged alongside modern technology.

The conversation then explores Vertice’s approach to personalization, which Rutledge defines as delivering relevance by understanding customer needs and serving appropriate products at the right time. The platform utilizes multiple AI applications including propensity scoring to predict product adoption and churn risk, automated campaign creation that generates targeted messaging for different demographics while maintaining regulatory compliance, and real-time campaign performance analysis. This comprehensive approach addresses the significant gap between consumer expectations for personalized financial experiences (74% want it) and actual delivery (only 22% feel they receive it). The technology enables marketing teams of one or two people to achieve the same level of personalization as larger institutions with extensive data science teams.

A notable aspect of Vertice’s journey is their decision to remain bootstrapped without taking venture capital funding. Rutledge explains this choice allowed the company to maintain control over their mission and vision while building according to client needs rather than investor timelines. The company achieved cash flow positivity from day one and focused on thoughtful, sustainable growth. For startup founders considering funding options, Rutledge advises being clear about the “why” behind raising funds, noting that while VC funding may be necessary for businesses requiring hyperscaling, companies that can grow profitably through customer revenue shouldn’t underestimate the bootstrap path. This approach creates discipline and efficiency, ensuring every dollar earned is tied to value creation and customer satisfaction.

More info:

Vertice AI: https://verticeanalytics.ai/ ; https://www.linkedin.com/company/verticeai/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-vertice-ai/

Mitch Rutledge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchrutledge/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #VerticeAI #FinovateFall #BestofShow #marketing #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #credit #payments #orchestration #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx #creditunions #communitybanks

Sangeet Paul Choudary is the world’s leading exponent of the platform economy.  This week he joins the Futurists to explain how artificial intelligence is likely to reorganize industries. Choudary pushes far beyond facile claims about “AI abundance” and “AI doom” to analyze the probable redistribution of value in markets. He explains how entire systems of production and distribution will be reshaped by machine intelligence. Choudary envisions a reorganization of value creation and value capture whereby AI will reshape the economic pie and cut it into different slices; but not all the value will flow to today’s incumbents. Choudary’s term for this system-wide reinvention “the reshuffle”, the name of his newest book. This conversation makes reference to concrete examples that will be familiar to all listeners: container shipping, the barcode, the smartphone, big data, and the rise of the digital economy. 

This week on Breaking Banks we finish our series on Brett King’s new book, Branch Tomorrow where we’ve featured interviews with Brett’s contributing authors: Bruno Diniz, Efi Pylarinou, Jim Marous, Paolo Sironi, and Richard Turrin. Each author brings a specialty in a different market, giving Branch Tomorrow a multi-perspective look at banking, banking culture, changes in ‘branching’ and the future of financial services across the globe, from the US to India, China, and Latin America.

In this episode of Breaking Banks, Brett King and Jim Marous, banking industry leader, fintech influencer, publisher and podcast host, dive into the insights from Branch Tomorrow from the U.S. perspective. They explore the evolving landscape of banking, focusing on the decline of physical branches (with peak branches in the U.S. in 2008) and the rise of digital banking solutions. While some large banks still invest in branches, smaller banks often struggle to justify the cost. The shift to digital is driven by customer behavior and operational efficiency,

With a keen eye on the economics and sustainability of traditional banking models, Jim and Brett discuss the challenges and opportunities facing financial institutions today. Tune in to the episode to better understand the U.S. banking market, and why being digital-first is crucial for survival in the modern banking world.

Branch Tomorrow, available now!, is an invaluable resource for bankers, regulators, fintech innovators, and future-focused leaders dedicated to thriving in the digital transformation of finance. The future of banking is truly here and is built on digital realities. Lead the change before it disrupts you!

FinovateFall Best of Show winner LendAPI on the future of lending (spoiler: it’s gonna be a lot faster)

Detailed Summary:

In this episode of the Finovate podcast, host Greg interviews Tim Li, CEO and Co-Founder of LendAPI, a recent Best of Show winner at FinovateFall. LendAPI is described as a “super orchestration platform” that allows users to build various financial products through an intuitive browser interface. The platform features a product studio where FI’s can create everything from personal loans to mortgages by customizing templates, with integrated rule studios, model studios, pricing engines, and third-party plugins. Tim emphasizes that the platform dramatically reduces the traditional timeline for launching financial products from years to potentially just days or weeks.

Tim explains that LendAPI was born from his own 20 years of frustration working in various financial roles, where he experienced firsthand the pain points of slow implementation and inefficient processes. The company has received enthusiastic responses from financial executives, particularly chief lending and risk officers from credit unions and banks who see the potential to finally launch products they’ve wanted to implement for years. Following their Finovate success, LendAPI has decided to focus specifically on embedded finance opportunities, even changing their tagline from “onboard anyone” to “embedded anywhere.”

Looking toward the future of lending, Tim envisions reducing friction at what he calls “the moment of truth,” that critical moment when consumers or small businesses want to make purchases or access credit. He believes financing, lending, and payments should blend seamlessly, creating a “magical” experience where credit decisions happen instantly without requiring extensive applications. This approach would prevent situations where people delay important purchases or decisions because of the onerous loan application process, ultimately making financial services more accessible and user-friendly.

More info:

LendAPI: https://www.lendapi.com/; https://www.linkedin.com/company/lendapi/

FinovateFall Demo: https://finovate.com/videos/finovatefall-2025-lendapi/

Tim Li: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothytli/

Greg Palmer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbpalmer/

Finovate: https://www.finovate.com; https://www.linkedin.com/company/finovate-conference-series/

#Finovate #LendAPI #FinovateFall #BestofShow #lending #podcast #fintechpodcast #financialservices #credit #payments #orchestration #digitraltransformation #fintech #finserv #modernization #innovation #startup #banking #cx #creditunions #communitybanks

In this episode of Breaking Banks Europe, hosts Matteo Rizzi and Don Ginsel welcome guest Bianca Lopes for a global discussion on fintech innovation, neobanks, and regulation. They begin with Revolut’s rapid growth and $13 billion expansion, comparing its evolving model to Brazil’s Nubank, which thrives with cost efficiency and minimal physical infrastructure. The conversation shifts to stablecoins, cross-border payments, and announcements from SWIFT at Sibos about new digital asset layers and near-instant international transactions. Lopes highlights the “Finance of Tomorrow” conference in Rio de Janeiro, which fosters collaboration among 17 countries’ regulators and promotes financial inclusion and responsible innovation across Latin America. They discuss Brazil’s leadership in instant payments, regulatory cooperation inspired by India’s UPI system, and global progress in open banking. The episode closes with reflections on the evolving role of central banks, financial well-being, and the human impact of inclusive fintech.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi interviews Ritavan to explore his book Data Impact: How legacy businesses Save, Leverage, Align, Simplify, Optimize, and Grow to WIN.

The SLASOG framework is a methodology designed to empower non-digital native businesses in harnessing their unique strengths for scalable, data-driven growth. Drawing from first-principles and empirically validated strategies, they discuss actionable insights to align teams on value creation, streamline processes, and accelerate innovation. You will gain practical guidance on: avoiding expensive groupthink pitfalls to save costs and enhance decision-making; identifying and capitalizing on core strengths and high-impact opportunities; fostering alignment across people, processes, and goals for unified progress; simplifying operations to reduce complexity costs while boosting leveraged returns: optimizing learning through empirical evidence for measurable impact; and cultivating an abundance mindset to drive demand-focused expansion and overcome scarcity thinking. Paolo’s and Ritavan’s conversation demystifies data-driven transformation and equips leaders with tools for sustainable success.

GUEST SOCIAL MEDIA
https://slasog.substack.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rritavan/
https://mavenmaverick.substack.com/

Susan Zieger, the author of “Logistics and Power”, joins the Futurists to share her insight about global trade and control. Global trade and logistics requires a hierarchy of control to ensure timely, reliable delivery. That’s why power is an emergent principle of the global supply chain.  For Zieger, the supply chain covers more than containers and manufactured goods, spanning the movement of humans and information.  The early phases of global trade continue to shape the present and the future of logistics, transportation, and cultural globalization. Zieger provides a wide-ranging survey of world systems, beginning with the Dutch colonies of the 17th century;  how modern managerial power emerged from railroad industry in the 19th century; and today’s new frontier of suborbital supply chains in space. Zieger’s critical focus is a humanist-focused interpretation of logistics, including the impact on the people who are engaged in global trade as employees or consumers, subject to the rules imposed by the logistics of trade.

This week onBreaking Banks, we spotlight the newest member of the Provoke.fm family, Bankers’ Bookshelf, hosted by Paolo Sironi.

This episode features Paolo’s interview with Sangeet Paul Choudary, author of the new book, Reshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy.

Paolo and Sangeet discuss how AI is set to transform the global economy and company operations by redistributing power among key players. Sangeet explores four key tensions driving this transformation: tensions between workers and their software tools; tool providers and the organizations that use them; businesses consolidating power and the industries they disrupt; and empowered individuals and established incumbents.

Drawing on compelling examples, historical parallels, and innovative perspectives, this conversation uncovers the opportunities and challenges AI presents—and reveals who stands to succeed or struggle when AI restacks the deck.

Don’t get left behind! Listen now!