With FinovateFall 2026 less than a week away, there’s not much time left to make your last-minute preparations before the conference begins on September 9 (September 8 for those lucky delegates attending one of our exclusive Leaders+ or Credit Union Spotlight pre-events!).

We’re looking forward to hosting more than 2,000 senior-level decision-makers, including more than 1,000 from banks and financial institutions, and more than 300 from credit unions and community banks. Add to that our full, 72-demo roster and a slate of insightful keynote speakers and panelists, and we’re on track to deliver one of the best FinovateFall conferences to date.

To help you make the most of your experience, here’s a handy guide of need-to-knows before and during your time at FinovateFall next week. We’ll see you at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York!

Connect Yourself

• The first step is to download the ConnectMe app from your preferred app store and set up your attendee profile. The ConnectMe app is a great way to review and keep up with the conference agenda as the show gets going. You can also use ConnectMe to set your schedule for the week and begin networking. We’ve added functionality within the app to make it easier than ever to exchange digital business cards with your fellow attendees.

• Follow #FinovateFall on LinkedIn for live updates. We’ll share event photos and announcements throughout the conference.

• FinovateFall is about helping you connect with the people you want to meet, which is why we offer more than ten hours of dedicated networking time across the three days of the event. In addition to organic networking, we’re also helping you find meetings that matter via our ConnectMe platform, where you can search other attendee profiles and schedule meetings directly through the app. FinovateFall is also featuring a number of interactive discussion roundtables to facilitate conversations between industry experts and your peers. Check out our agenda to see which roundtables most interest you.

At the Conference

• The conference begins Wednesday, September 9. Registration opens each morning at 8am. Continental breakfast and coffee will be available in the networking area.

• The general sessions will begin each morning at 9am with networking breaks scheduled throughout the day. Each conference day will conclude with a drinks reception and networking opportunity.

• With so much going on at FinovateFall this year, a little preparation can go a long way toward ensuring you don’t miss the sessions, speakers, and demos you’re looking for. In addition to the agenda in ConnectMe, check out our blog posts highlighting some of this year’s top attractions.

Special Attractions

• FinovateFall 2026 has something for everybody, along with a few offerings designed for specific audiences. These include our Leaders+ and Credit Union Spotlight on September 8. These pre-event exclusives give bank and credit union professionals, respectively, an opportunity to discuss issues relevant to their organizations and hear insights and experiences from industry analysts, executives, and innovators. To learn more about joining us for Leaders+ or the Credit Union Spotlight, reach out to [email protected].

• Free books! FinovateFall 2026 is proud to host a pair of book signings. Steve Bishop and Tony del Fierro, co-authors of Know Your Agent, will sign their book on the morning of Wednesday, September 9. Author and founder of Unconventional Ventures Theodora Lau will sign her latest book, Banking on (Artificial) Intelligence, during the networking session Wednesday evening.

• Our award-winning strolling magician and mentalist is back! Joining attendees at the networking reception Thursday evening—ahead of our Best of Show awards presentation—our magician will wow you with feats of close-up magic and live illusions!

Final Notes

• There’s a lot going on at FinovateFall this year. To make sure you get seamless access to everything you’ve registered for, please remember to bring—and wear—your badge every conference day.

• Dress code for FinovateFall is business casual to business formal. Need some guidance? Here are some tips for women and for men.

• Questions? Before the event, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. Once you’re at the venue, stop by our registration desk on the fifth floor or ask a Finovate staffer if you need help.

We officially have 72 demos on stage at this year’s FinovateFall conference, taking place September 9 through 11 at the Marriott Marquis in New York (book now!). This year’s lineup is a nice mix of startups with established players, and with all demos running on a single track, you won’t miss a thing. This concentrated format makes it easy to spot the patterns shaping bank roadmaps for the next 12 to 18 months.

Here’s a look at what trends lie ahead, based on what we’re seeing across this year’s demo companies.

AI gets to work

It will come as no surprise that AI is the most prominent enabling technology on the FinovateFall stage this year. What’s more interesting is that this year’s demo companies are showing that the industry has evolved its use of AI to tackle specific jobs that are expensive, repetitive, time consuming, or difficult to scale.

In wealth management, AdvisorHelpAI, Covecta, GPTAdvisor, Nextvestment, Mobena, and Valcori Automated Solutions are using technology to augment advisors, improve planning, organize institutional knowledge, or streamline the work that happens around client relationships. CUltivate AI, LemonadeLXP, and ScreenSteps are focused on the employee side of the equation, helping financial institution staff learn, find information, and navigate complex processes more efficiently. Inbenta, Titan AI, Tweezr, Birdie AI, and Hamming AI similarly point toward a future in which AI is embedded into service and operational workflows rather than living in a standalone chatbot.

The same shift is happening with data. Pyramid Solutions, Data City, Preql AI, and Ventus AI are helping organizations extract more useful intelligence from the data they already have, while Go.AI allows financial institutions to use AI while maintaining greater control over their data, models, and outputs.

Banks are slowly realizing that they can outsource a wide range of tasks to AI, and fintechs are making that possible.

Agentic AI moves deeper into financial operations

The next evolution is already visible as fintechs begin building technology capable of taking action.

Saris AI is building agents to automate lending, compliance, and operations tasks, while Rexi applies an agentic layer to transaction matching, reconciliation, and discrepancy resolution. Palomonte Labs is building infrastructure that makes financial APIs understandable and executable by AI agents, and Tacnode is tackling the data layer by giving agents access to shared, real-time context.

Agentic concepts are showing up in more specialized areas, too. Vertice AI is applying autonomous capabilities to marketing campaign planning and execution, while Transvision Solutions uses autonomous AI to conduct AML investigations. Kita Technologies deploys multiple specialized agents across the lending process. Voyager AI similarly brings intelligence to document collection, spreading, underwriting, compliance, and credit memo preparation.

The first generation of agentic banking may be much less visible to consumers than other developments have been. Rather than immediately handing an AI agent control over a customer’s entire financial life, financial institutions appear more interested in deploying specialized agents with narrowly defined jobs, permissions, data, and guardrails.

Fintech targets operating leverage

One of the more interesting themes in this year’s lineup has less to do with a particular technology and more to do with the outcome fintechs are promising. Many are seeking to help financial institutions accomplish more without adding equivalent amounts of headcount, cost, or complexity.

This becomes very clear when we look at the lending subsector. ALoan is automating commercial underwriting and credit memo preparation, while QuickFi digitizes commercial equipment financing from application through final payment. Kato uses automation to lower the cost of servicing and collections, Veritus deploys AI voice and text agents across lending and collections, and Vertyx automates servicing workflows after mortgage close. Donevia adds an intelligence and engagement layer to existing lending infrastructure rather than requiring institutions to replace their LOS.

Other companies are attacking operational friction from different angles. MHC automates documents, payments, and customer communications, while Naehas automates regulated offers, disclosures, and marketing processes. Loquat brings onboarding, lending, cards, and back-office lifecycle management together for community financial institutions. Finerative, Horizon AI, FFERM Technologies, and adapfin Technologies are also addressing specialized areas where better technology can streamline decision-making or financial operations.

Even Delfi Labs, which operates in capital markets rather than traditional bank operations, reflects the same underlying theme by using AI-guided analytics and streamlined execution to help community financial institutions make balance-sheet decisions more efficiently.

This is a notable shift from an earlier era of fintech, when some of the industry’s most visible innovations centered on making banking look and feel better. Smoother onboarding and cleaner interfaces still matter, but much of this year’s technology is focused on making the institution itself operate better.

Customer engagement gets tied to outcomes

Customer engagement and financial wellness remain prominent on the demo stage, but this year’s companies are increasingly connecting them to measurable behaviors and business outcomes.

BankUniverse uses intent signals to identify high-value prospects and improve digital conversion, while Finalytics.ai uses behavioral, transactional, and third-party data to create segment-of-one experiences. Tapix enriches raw payment data to create the clean merchant and transaction information needed to power better analytics and personalization. Omnisient adds another dimension by enabling privacy-preserving collaboration around consumer data, and Radar uses location intelligence not only for fraud prevention, but also to help companies engage users in context.

Other companies are connecting financial wellness more directly to action. Doshi combines gamified financial education with product-readiness signals, while GenAspire uses teen banking and financial literacy as an acquisition strategy for community financial institutions. Young Early Starters combines education with real, parent-approved investing, and On Time Harvest pairs cash-flow forecasting and behavioral insights with financial education and planning.

Perqia uses incentives timed to borrower cash flow to encourage loan repayment. Clockout connects financial wellness and liquidity tools to direct-deposit growth and engagement. And Goodbuy turns community commerce into a channel designed to drive account activation, deposits, card usage, and interchange.

Even lending and payments are becoming more contextual. equipifi brings personalized BNPL and flexible payments into the digital banking relationship, while OptimaFI uses household-level intelligence and peer benchmarking to identify growth and risk opportunities.

The common thread is that engagement is now focused on influencing what happens next instead of generating clicks.

Infrastructure takes center stage

Much of the technology on the FinovateFall stage will be the infrastructure that consumers never see.

Payments provide a good example. 3 Degrees enables community banks and credit unions to embed cross-border payments, while Finzly provides infrastructure for banks to process payments across rails including ACH, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT, and FedNow. Neural Payments connects financial institutions to multiple payment rails and wallets through a single branded integration. Paywhere and Tyfone also illustrate the continued evolution of the technology connecting financial institutions, payments, and digital banking experiences.

Glide combines digital account opening, lending, onboarding, identity verification, fraud detection, and funding, demonstrating another important infrastructure trend: financial institutions increasingly want capabilities that can slot into their existing environments rather than require wholesale replacement.

Security and trust are becoming part of that infrastructure, as well. Darwinium continuously evaluates digital behavior to identify fraud across customer journeys, while Illuma applies voice authentication to contact-center security. SLC Digital focuses on secure digital authentication and account-takeover prevention, and Quavo Fraud & Disputes tackles the operational infrastructure surrounding fraud and disputes.

McCarthy Hatch applies AI to regulatory risk by analyzing customer complaints, while RangersAI moves fraud prevention closer to the customer with real-time scam education and intervention. Warrant and Root represent other approaches to establishing trust and managing risk as financial services become increasingly digital.

And some infrastructure is aimed at expanding what financial institutions can offer in the first place. Blytz, Cosmos, and FinZee AI illustrate just how broadly the definition of financial technology continues to stretch, from new forms of financial interaction to technologies that connect financial behavior with other sources of context.

In a broad sense, many of this year’s fintechs aren’t trying to replace the bank or even become the customer’s primary financial interface. This new breed is building the intelligence, automation, security, payments, data, and workflow layers that allow existing financial institutions to modernize.

What’s missing?

For a demo lineup this large, almost every corner of fintech has some representation. Still, one of today’s loudest industry conversations is surprisingly quiet.

Stablecoins have moved squarely into mainstream conversations about payments, settlement, and banking infrastructure, but there isn’t a corresponding wave of stablecoin issuers, tokenized-deposit platforms, crypto custody providers, or blockchain companies on the demo stage. This is a reflection of the fact that regulatory frameworks like those established by the GENIUS Act and proposed under the CLARITY Act are still taking shape, and many traditional banks are hesitant to jump into decentralized finance without established regulatory guidelines.

Overall, this year’s demos point toward a fintech industry that is becoming less focused on novelty and more focused on execution. AI is being tasked with real work, agents are beginning to execute defined processes, infrastructure is drawing attention, and customer engagement is increasingly being tied to measurable outcomes.

The flashy front-end experience hasn’t disappeared, but much of the innovation at FinovateFall 2026 will be happening behind it. And for banks planning their next 12 to 18 months of technology investment, that may be the trend that matters most.

Photo by crazy motions

FinovateFall returns to New York September 9 through 11, bringing more than 100 industry experts to the Marriott Marquis Times Square to discuss the forces reshaping banking and fintech.

This year’s keynote lineup reflects just how much is changing at once. Banks and fintechs are navigating an uncertain economic and geopolitical environment while determining where AI can create real value, how to defend against increasingly sophisticated financial crime, what stablecoins mean for payments, and who will control customer relationships as financial data moves into AI-powered interfaces.

With that in mind, here are some of the keynote sessions worth adding to your FinovateFall agenda.

Manas Chawla, Founder and Chief Executive, London Politica

The Global Economic and Geopolitical Outlook and The Direction Of Travel For The US Economy
Wednesday, September 9

Fintech doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Interest rates, geopolitical tensions, trade policy, economic growth, and shifting global alliances ultimately influence everything from lending and investment to payments and consumer behavior.

London Politica Founder and Chief Executive Manas Chawla will open the conversation by zooming out from individual technologies and examining the broader economic and geopolitical forces shaping the US economy. For banking and fintech leaders making investment decisions amid continued uncertainty, Chawla’s keynote offers context for understanding the environment in which those decisions will play out.

Jennifer White, Senior Director, Global Banking and Payments Intelligence, J.D. Power

Fraud in The Age Of AI: How To Respond When The Attacker Has Better Tools Than You
Thursday, September 10

AI is giving financial institutions new tools to detect fraud, but it is also lowering the cost and increasing the sophistication of attacks. Deepfakes, synthetic identities, automated social engineering, and increasingly scalable fraud operations are changing the threat landscape.

Jennifer White, Senior Director of Global Banking and Payments Intelligence at J.D. Power, will address what happens when financial criminals have access to many of the same (or potentially better) AI tools as the institutions trying to stop them. Her quick-fire keynote will consider how fraud defenses must evolve as financial crime becomes increasingly industrialized.

Jon Lakefish, Founder, Lakefish Group

AI-Enhanced CX to Create Trust and Loyalty
Friday, September 11

The question surrounding AI is quickly moving beyond whether financial institutions should use it. Instead, the questions now pertain to how AI can deliver measurable value.

Jon Lakefish, Founder of Lakefish Group, will take a practical approach to that question by focusing on customer experience. His keynote will explore the AI tools available today and how organizations can put them to work to improve customer interactions, build trust, and strengthen loyalty.

Lakefish brings more than 20 years of branding and marketing experience to the discussion and focuses his work on helping businesses translate AI from an emerging technology into practical tools that can save time, reduce costs, and improve decision-making.

Arthur J. O’Connor, Academic Director of Data Science and Generative AI, CUNY School of Professional Studies

From Copilots To Colleagues: As AI Shifts From Assistive Tools To Semi-Autonomous Actors, What Does It Mean For Control, Risk, And Value?
Friday, September 11

The next phase of financial services AI may look very different from the chatbots and copilots that characterized its first wave.

As AI systems gain the ability to take actions rather than simply provide information, financial institutions will have to rethink questions of control, accountability, governance, and risk. Arthur J. O’Connor, Academic Director of Data Science & Generative AI at CUNY School of Professional Studies, will explore what happens as AI makes the transition from tool to semi-autonomous actor and where financial institutions can capture value without surrendering appropriate oversight.

Luther Liang, SVP, Head of Product, Grasshopper Bank

Stablecoin 101: What Are They and Why Do They Matter? How Can Banks Monetize Them? How Will They Affect Payments?
Friday, September 11

Stablecoins have moved rapidly from a crypto industry topic to a strategic question for banks. The conversation is increasingly about practical applications: payments, settlement, cross-border money movement, deposits, and how financial institutions should participate.

Grasshopper Bank SVP and Head of Product Luther Liang will provide a practical introduction to the technology and, more importantly, examine the business case. His keynote will consider where banks can monetize stablecoins, how they could reshape payments, and what financial institutions need to understand as stablecoin infrastructure moves closer to mainstream financial services.

Personalization That Pays: Turning Data into Revenue, Not Just Engagement

Friday, September 11

Banks have spent years investing in personalization, but personalized experiences do not automatically translate into better economics.

This Customer Experience & Trust keynote will tackle the next step: turning customer data and personalization into measurable business value. The discussion will consider how financial institutions can move beyond using data simply to drive engagement and instead connect personalization with revenue.

Speaker to be announced.

Stefany Bello, Senior Vice President, Digital Partnerships, Fintech and Enablers in North America, Mastercard

Payment Innovation: Customer Choice
Friday, September 11

Consumers increasingly expect payments to fit around how they want to transact rather than the other way around.

Mastercard Senior Vice President of Digital Partnerships, Fintech and Enablers in North America Stefany Bello will participate in a fireside chat examining payment innovation, including the launch of Cleo’s program and what new payment options mean for consumer choice and flexibility.

The conversation comes as payments become increasingly embedded within broader financial experiences and consumers gain more ways to determine how, when, and through which provider they pay.

Beyond 1033: Who Controls Customer Data In An AI-Driven Financial System?

Friday, September 11

The debate over open banking is no longer limited to whether consumers can share their financial data with third-party apps.

As open banking evolves toward open finance and consumers increasingly interact with their financial lives through LLMs and AI-powered interfaces, the bigger question may become who controls that data once it starts moving between banks, fintechs, aggregators, and AI platforms.

This quick-fire keynote will look beyond Section 1033 to consider what this new layer of intermediation could mean for banks and their relationships with customers.

Speaker to be announced.

A CIA Whistle-Blower’s Perspective On Speaking Truth To Power: Secret Wars & CIA Lies

Friday, September 11

FinovateFall’s final out-of-the-box keynote will take the conversation well beyond financial technology.

Drawing on the experience of a CIA whistle-blower, the session will examine what it means to challenge powerful institutions, operate in environments where information and incentives collide, and speak truth to power. It’s a different lens from the banking and technology discussions taking place throughout the week—and an opportunity to close the conference by thinking more broadly about transparency, accountability, and institutional decision-making.

Speaker to be announced.

One lineup, several big questions

Taken together, these keynotes highlight a common challenge facing financial services leaders: how do you make decisions when technology and the environment around it are changing faster than traditional planning cycles?

AI is simultaneously becoming a customer experience tool, an autonomous actor, and a weapon for fraudsters. Stablecoins are challenging assumptions about how money moves. Open finance is raising new questions about who controls customer data. All of these developments, which our speakers will cover in depth at FinovateFall, are unfolding against a changing economic and geopolitical backdrop.

FinovateFall takes place September 9 through 11, 2026, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York. In addition to the keynote sessions, this year’s agenda includes more than 70 seven-minute fintech demos and dedicated content across AI and innovation, customer experience and trust, and the future of money. Check out the full agenda and register today to save your seat.

Photo by Ramon Perucho

Running alongside FinovateFall on September 11 in New York City, IMPACT Funders & Founders is a special opportunity for innovative fintech startups and scale-ups to connect with venture capitalists, corporate investors, and industry leaders.

For investors, IMPACT offers an early look at some of the best investment prospects in fintech, targeted one-on-one meetings with startups, and insights from experts on common challenges faced by fintech investors today. For founders and startups, IMPACT provides opportunities to network individually with top VCs, angel investors, and private equity firms, pitch directly to leading investors, and learn from veteran fintech executives on how to grow and scale.

IMPACT is a one-of-a-kind event. But is IMPACT for you? Here’s a look at our updated agenda, including a peek at our Pulse Roundtables, a special opportunity for candid, off-the-record conversations between funders, founders, and attendees.

Remember that IMPACT Funders & Founders is its own event and requires a separate pass from FinovateFall 2026. Create your package and secure your Funder or Founder & Startup Pass at our IMPACT Funders & Founders hub.

The day begins with IMPACT Funder & Founder Meetings: pre-scheduled, 10-minute, one-on-one meetings directly connecting startups with active investors. This session is followed by a dual-track conference-within-a-conference with one stage dedicated to the issues and concerns of fintech startups and another stage focused on the challenges faced by fintech investors. Each stage will consist of keynotes, fireside chats, and power panels covering a range of topics from AI and investment trends to tokenized assets and navigating regulatory change.

For Funders

Opening Keynote: The Future of Venture Capital: Navigating Change. This opening keynote will focus on how AI, tokenized assets, and innovative fund structures are reshaping the venture capital landscape.

Power Panel: GP-LP Evolution and Market Dynamics. This power panel will explore evolving dynamics between GPs and LPs, including co-investment trends, GP-led transactions, and strategies for navigating global capital flows.

Keynote: The Advantage Shift: How AI, Regulation, and Trust are Reshaping Competitive Advantage. Featuring Cate Taylor, CEO of communications and corporate affairs advisory firm Bayes Global.

Lightning Round Presentations: These 10-minute talks feature industry professionals sharing their insights on key issues in fintech and investing, including:

• Mindset Ventures Managing Partner Boaz Albaranes on The Liquidity Problem: How Venture Capital Adapts to 15-Year Private Companies
• Sidecut Ventures Managing Partner Mike Ma on Why Capital Efficiency is Replacing Growth-at-all-Costs
• Thomson Reuters Ventures Investor Alex Carvalho on Fintech Valuations After the Reset: What Deserves a Premium Multiple?
• Global PayTech Ventures Managing Partner Kristofer Perez on The Return of Consumer Fintech: AI Enables Opportunities in Lending, Payments, and Personal Finance

Check out the Pulse Roundtables! Our Pulse Roundtables are a unique opportunity for candid, peer-led conversations between attendees. For Funders, we’re featuring discussions on distribution as the new moat and the evolving landscape of crypto and digital assets.

For Founders

Fireside Chat: A Fintech Success Story. This fireside chat will highlight the pivotal moments that defined a company’s trajectory.

Power Panel: Fundraising Playbook—Tactics That Work Now. This power panel will discuss best practices for startups seeking funding, from the first meeting to the term sheet.

Keynote: The Visibility Gap and How to Get Found in the Era of AI. Featuring Greg Matusky, Founder and CEO of financial services PR agency Gregory, and host of the AI-focused podcast The Disruption is Now.

Fireside Chat: AI as Your Growth Engine. This fireside chat will focus on how startups are using AI to scale faster and cheaper. This chat will be moderated by Steven Ramirez, CEO of Beyond the Arc, in conversation with Fintech Sandbox Co-Founder Sarah Biller.

Lightning Round Presentations: These 10-minute talks feature industry professionals sharing their insights on key issues in fintech and investing, including:

• Launch Factory Partner Alessandro Rinaldi on Building Strategic Networks and Advisory Boards
• Accutive Fintech Strategist and Evangelist Derek Corcoran on GTM Strategy: From Zero to Market Traction
• Finkr COO and Co-Founder Paul Mullins on Talent Strategy: Building High-Performing Fintech Teams

Don’t forget the Pulse Roundtables! For Founders, we’re offering conversations on developing scalable operational strategies and coordinating go-to-market efforts with growth and market expansion, as well as a look at how to leverage AI-driven insights to optimize customer acquisition, retention, and deal closure.

The day concludes with our IMPACT Startup Spotlight, featuring a series of pitches from a curated group of fintech startups and scale-ups. Scheduled for the spotlight are:

• Fed Alcius, Founder, Rends.ai
• Annie Burtoff, Founder, Confidio
• Alisha Chowdhury, CEO & Co-Founder, Kiro Money
• Betiana Darderes, Founder & CEO, Palomonte Labs
• Alex De Marco, Founder & CEO, MoneyStack
• Paigaam Dhaliwal, Co-Founder, Alt Indices
• Mario Jiménez Gárate, Founder & CEO, CredX.AI
• Carla Garcia, Founder & CEO, My Plan Keeper
• Connor Gillooly, Founder & CEO, CreditMark
• Anaïs Howland, Founder & CEO, Oasive
• Timothy Li, CEO, LendAPI
• Vijay Parwari, Founder & CEO, Code Comprehend
• Bart Vanhaeren, Co-Founder & CEO, Young Early Starters
• Brett Vasconcellos, Co-Founder & CEO, Paywhere
• Jay Zigmont, Founder & Chief Visionary, Childfree Trust

Growing up in Montana, community banking was the only type of banking I ever knew until I left town for college. My best friend’s mom worked at the bank down the street, and all of the tellers recognized my parents when we walked into the branch. My mom started her own business by obtaining a working line of credit after presenting a business plan and a promise.

As a kid, I thought every town worked this way. Now, decades later, looking back on those experiences offers important insights into banking.

Community banking, especially in a small town, has always depended on trust, reputation, personal connections, and long-term relationships. When I switched to a digital-only bank in 2006, that sense of connection largely disappeared. My relationship with the bank felt less personal and more centered on the transactions I was making.

That disconnect may help explain why so many fintechs now invest heavily in recreating digitally what community banks have spent generations building in person. Personalization, customer engagement, financial wellness, AI assistants, and customer relationship management may sound modern, but the underlying ideas are not. Community banks have long relied on knowing their customers, understanding their needs, and building loyalty over time. In 2026, those same goals remain priorities across the financial services industry.

Because community banks already understand many of the qualities customers value most, they do not need to imitate megabanks. They do, however, need technology that helps them extend those strengths. With the right partners, community banks can serve customers faster, automate manual work, strengthen fraud detection, and give employees more time to focus on meaningful customer interactions. The opportunity will help strengthen the relationship-driven model by supporting it with digital tools and workflows that meet rising customer expectations.

This technology gap is exactly what the Community Bank Spotlight at FinovateFall seeks to bridge. On September 11, we’re hosting a special breakfast session open only to community banks and a few selected fintechs, that will provide executives a place to share best practices, talk through common challenges, and discover innovative solutions.

If you’re interested in attending the Community Bank Spotlight at FinovateFall, reach out to [email protected] to get yourself on the guest list. Keep in mind that space is limited, and only community bank employees are eligible to attend.

FinovateFall is just three weeks away! This year’s event features three industry stages: AI and Innovation, The Future of Money, and Customer Experience and Trust. Each stage is designed to offer banking and fintech leaders insight into what’s working in practice, what’s breaking under the pressure of new technology and regulations, and what institutions need to rethink about their current operations.

AI and Innovation

Artificial intelligence has moved beyond experimentation. The conversations at FinovateFall will focus on what comes next, such as transitioning from AI copilots to semi-autonomous agents, measuring the ROI of AI projects, and examining where investments are still falling short. Sessions will explore enterprise-scale AI development, practical approaches to modernizing legacy technology, the rise of agentic commerce, and the front-office opportunities that promise the greatest competitive advantage. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of where AI is creating real business value today and where the next wave of innovation is headed.

The Future of Money

Stablecoins, AI agents, and data-driven lending are reshaping how money moves and how financial decisions are made. This stage explores the technologies and strategies that will define the next generation of financial services, from the growing role of stablecoins in banking and payments to AI-powered financial decision-making and precision lending. Industry leaders will also examine how payment strategies are evolving amid increasing competitive and regulatory pressure. Attendees will walk away with practical insight into where financial institutions should focus their investments as the infrastructure of money continues to change.

Customer Experience and Trust

Delivering exceptional customer experiences increasingly depends on earning and maintaining trust. Sessions in this stagea will explore how financial institutions can use personalization and AI to create more relevant customer journeys while strengthening security, reducing fraud, and building lasting customer confidence. The discussions on this industry stage will examine experience transformation, digital identity, financial crime prevention, and how banks can turn trust into a competitive advantage while maintaining growth.

Together, these three industry stages on Friday, September 11 will offer a concentrated look at the moves that will define banking’s next chapter. If you register for FinovateFall before August 21, you can still save up to $400.

FinovateFall 2026 is just over a month away. Coming to New York’s Marriott Marquis Times Square, from September 9 through 11, this year’s FinovateFall conference will feature both the familiar—in the form of our signature, seven-minute live fintech demos and standout keynote addresses—and the new, as represented by initiatives ranging from our Credit Union Spotlight to our Executive Debates to our special IMPACT Funders and Founders event.

With so much on offer, it can be easy to miss or overlook a session, panel, or address. To this end, we’re going to spend the next few weeks highlighting some of the presentations we think you won’t want to miss. Today, we look at some of the mainstage addresses on the agenda across all three days of the conference.

Special Address: If You Already Own the AI, Then Why Are You Still Shopping

Featuring Melissa Solis, CEO of Inbenta, this presentation will discuss why most customer experience AI fails on the basics and how to tell apart a vendor that actually delivers from one that just demos. Solis also will offer a framework for auditing your customer experience against what you actually need rather than simply what you are being sold.

Headquartered in Texas, Inbenta offers an agentic AI platform, Encore, that serves financial services, e-commerce, healthcare, and travel with more than 98% accuracy, near-zero hallucinations, full auditability, and more than 850 integrations to help avoid vendor lock-in.

Wednesday, September 9: 10:10 am—10:25 am

Special Address: Introducing Madison—Agentic Workbench for Banks

This session, led by Siva Surendira, Founder and CEO of Lyzr AI, will show how Architect by Lyzr enables business users to describe a problem and get a working, governed AI agent in minutes. Surendira will also explain how thousands of those AI agents provide leadership with a live, crowdsourced view of where automation ROI truly lives.

Lyzr is a category leader in agentic AI infrastructure. The company’s technology powers the internal AI platforms of firms including Accenture and Prophet.

Wednesday, September 9: 3:15 pm—3:30 pm

Special Address: Trust at the Speed of AI

In this special address, Charlie Schilling, CEO of Macabacus, explains why trust rather than caution is what unlocks AI’s full value in finance: trust that the model being built is accurate, trust that the data is consistent across the pitch, and trust that every piece of content is on brand.

Based in New York, Macabacus is a productivity and brand compliance suite for investment banks, private equity, venture capital, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams, and consulting firms.

Thursday, September 10: 9:25 am—9:40 am

Quick Fire Keynote: Fraud in the Age of AI. How to Respond When the Attacker Has Better Tools Than You

Senior Director, Global Banking and Payments Intelligence for JD Power, Jennifer White, will share her insights on the challenges faced by banks, credit unions, financial services providers, their members and customers when it comes to the rise of AI-powered fraud and financial crime. White will discuss how fraud and financial crime are being increasingly globalized and industrialized, and how defenses against these threats must evolve in order to keep individuals and systems safe.

JD Power is a leader in business-critical data and intelligence that supports automated decision-making. The company’s proprietary data, advanced analytics, and deep industry expertise supply lenders, insurers, original equipment manufacturers, and other firms with guidance and intelligence about customer interactions with their brands, products, and services.

Thursday, September 10: 4:55 pm—5:05 pm

Out of the Box Keynote Address: AI-Enhanced CX to Create Trust and Loyalty

Jon Lakefish, Founder of the Lakefish Group, will deliver a practical guide to all the AI tools currently available to help enhance the customer experience and how to make the most of them. Lakefish will also host a special hands-on, interactive session in the afternoon (1:10 pm—2:00 pm) in which he will walk participants through real scenarios so they can experience firsthand how AI can save time and money, while enhancing decision-making.

Lakefish Group provides speaking and hands-on workshops, as well as consulting and training, to help businesses take advantage of modern, practical AI tools to enhance their marketing and branding initiatives.

Friday, September 11: 9:50 am—10:20 am

FinovateFall 2026 comes to the Marriott Marquis Times Square, September 9—11. Save up to $400 when you book your ticket by August 21.