Five fintech experts on AI in finance

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes · Last updated: 10 September 2026

Lou Carlozzo hosted a Bankadelic podcast episode published September 9, 2026 that gathered five fintech leaders to assess artificial intelligence in banking and payments. The guests were Matt Creatore (Chief Customer & Growth Officer, Titan), Danial Jameel (Founder/CEO, Saris AI), Mitch Rutledge (Co-founder/CEO, Vertice AI), Mac Thompson (Founder and CEO, White Clay) and Matthew Wood (Sr. Director of Product Management, Banking and Financial Services, Tavant). As first reported by Talking Biz News, the episode framed AI’s current state as uneven across institutions, with practical deployments and questions about return on investment dominating the discussion.

Who spoke and why it matters

The episode convened five named fintech leaders who work at technology vendors and product teams that supply banks. Matt Creatore represents Titan in a commercial-growth role; Danial Jameel leads Saris AI; Mitch Rutledge runs Vertice AI; Mac Thompson is the founder of White Clay; and Matthew Wood heads product for banking and financial services at Tavant. That mix — vendor executives and a product director focused on banks — frames the conversation around practical deployments rather than pure research. Listeners therefore get responses grounded in commercial deployments, customer adoption challenges and product roadmaps rather than theoretical claims.

Topics the panel covered

The guests discussed the variety of AI use across institutions, describing a spectrum from established implementations to early experimentation. They addressed both customer-facing tools and internal automation, and singled out the central challenge that banks face when moving from pilot projects to scaled production. Because the episode gathered vendor voices and a product manager, a recurring theme was how proof points and measurable outcomes determine whether a bank scales a model. The panel also touched on governance and operational readiness as prerequisites for wider rollouts, though the episode transcript or timestamps would give the exact examples and grades each guest assigned.

What the discussion did not resolve

The podcast highlighted persistent uncertainty about return on investment and where value is clearest, but it did not publish comprehensive metrics or a single industry scorecard. While the host and panelists referred to grades they assigned to the industry, the episode page does not list those grades verbatim, so listeners must consult the audio for details. Similarly, the show did not supply audience metrics or case-study numbers on cost savings or revenue lift tied to specific projects, leaving those quantitative questions open for follow-up from the guests or their firms.

Cases for and against rapid industry progress

The bottom line

The Bankadelic episode collected vendor and product leadership perspectives on where AI delivers value today and where banks still need clarity. With five named guests and a host experienced in industry coverage, the discussion provides practical observations rather than a single industry verdict. However, the episode page does not publish the numeric grades or case-study metrics referenced in the conversation, so practitioners should consult the audio directly and watch for follow-up posts or public case studies from the guests’ organisations to see hard evidence of ROI.

What to watch

• Listen to the full Bankadelic episode and note the grades each guest gave; the episode page provides the audio but no verbatim grade list, and no date for a follow-up has been set.
• Watch for any public case studies or blog posts from Titan, Saris AI, Vertice AI, White Clay or Tavant that provide deployment metrics; no specific publication dates were announced.