Interviewer: Well, this year's Money 2020 showing that the line between traditional banking and DeFi is becoming more blurry. While traditional banks study fintech to eliminate consumer friction, digital asset platforms are racing to adopt the compliance risk controls as well as balance sheet discipline of century-old institutions. And at the same time, a massive new frontier is dominating the stage, and that is agentic commerce. But with industry leaders, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, voicing concerns over autonomous AI and financial services, Wall Street is forced to confront a basic question. So who bears legal responsibility when bots start spending human capital? Well, joining me live on the ground on the final day of Money 2020 is Erin Byrd, global co-leader of financial services and fintech at LEK Consulting. Great to have you here. Thank you so much for joining me.
Erin Byrd: Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: Well, of course, we've been paying attention to some key themes here on the ground at Money 2020. So first, I do want to get your take on what have been the key highlights this year.
Erin Byrd: Yeah, I think some of the big key highlights have been how much focus there is on agentic commerce, the different perspectives on, you know, how agentic should be used, what the engagement should be, the guardrails around it. Another big theme I've seen is a lot of discussion of trust, um, who do you trust and how do you trust them? And then the other thing is just relative to digital assets and how digital assets have progressed. Uh, it's interesting to see if they've become a mainstream topic, um, where it's no longer a question of will they be involved, it's how will you involve them and how will people engage.
Interviewer: Yeah, and Erin, I think with any new technology that comes onto the marketplace, there are always risks as well as opportunities. So first and foremost, we know about all the opportunities, but when it comes to the risks, where do your concerns lie?
Erin Byrd: I think the risks at the moment are that people might have unintended consequences with how they engage in things that they're uncertain how they would use them. Um, I think the dynamic that's interesting, particularly when you think about agentic or AI, is that people are importing their information into LLM systems, uh, financial information in particular, uh, and there's a lot of activity and query happening within those systems. But today, the protection of individual data rights and individual identity is something that's not progressed as far as, you know, the speed at which AI is advancing. So I think it's going to be a critical component to kind of come together.
Interviewer: And I think the big question, in addition to who bears legal responsibility when it comes to the agentic commerce and when things do go wrong, there are concerns, of course, but who does bear the responsibility? Is it the tech firms? Should there be more regulatory controls, or do you think it's somewhere in between?
Erin Byrd: I think that there's obviously individual responsibility required for people to better understand what and how they're using different things. I do think there's a need for some better guardrails around, you know, how interactions occur, what types of information are accessible, how it's used. Um, and I also think that at some point we'll see someone, uh, be willing to take on some of that liability because whoever's willing to take on the liability will also see an increase in how engagement runs through them because people will be less concerned about interacting in an agentic way.
Interviewer: And Erin, this is the final day of Money 2020, and every single day there have been plenty of panels, a lot of meetings taking place, a lot of discussions, and you highlighted agentic commerce being one of the dominant themes. So what do you think this means as we head into 2027, and what are some of these stakeholders that you've been engaging with and actually saying about the future?
Erin Byrd: Yeah, so I think that there's a few pieces to that. So one is, you know, a lot of people have been looking for the signals to indicate that agentic commerce is actually real and that customers are willing to engage through agentic commerce. Um, however, the speed at which technology is moving agentic commerce forward is outpacing the way that they're absorbing that into financial institutions. Um, so there needs to be a drastic, uh, shift in how forward financial institutions are thinking about the way that they're, uh, preparing for agentic commerce. And then we also think there's gonna be a significant change in how customers think about their financial institutions. So we hear a lot about trust, and trust is an important element, but there's also a value, a connection and an engagement component that have to come together. And at the moment, no one's really owning that kind of overall value chain.
Interviewer: And of course, when it comes to agentic, there's a lot of opportunity, and there are a lot of builders on the ground here at Money 2020. So what are you optimistic about and what are you encouraged by?
Erin Byrd: I think the thing that makes me optimistic is the fact that, um, you know, this really levels the playing field in terms of how information and financial awareness can be increased as well as, um, you know, gives means of understanding around, you know, areas of financial inclusion and engagement, um, that have been barriers for a long time. So I think that's, uh, gonna be an interesting dynamic where, if informed well, um, people should be able to interact financially in a different way.
Interviewer: And finally, before I let you go, we are in the final quarter of 2026, and we have seen a lot of advancement when it comes to artificial intelligence, the technology, how people engage with it, and how industries are looking at artificial intelligence. But what trends do you think are key as we head into 2027?
Erin Byrd: So I think, um, you know, particularly as you look at financial institutions, the engagement with artificial intelligence has been a big ramp-up in evaluating how to use it in low-risk, uh, higher-impact areas without using it in ways that are directly customer-facing or front-office-facing or changing business models. I actually think it's principally gonna change business models, um, the AI, you know, digital money, and, and, uh, agentic together. So the ability for institutions to think differently about how they harness those items in their core business model is gonna be the big shift.
Interviewer: And finally, before I let you go, we have about 60 seconds here. So there's a lot of anticipation about some of the big AI companies going public in the new year or even this year. So as somebody who is an observer and has been looking at the progress of these companies, they have waited longer to go public. What do you think the impact will be, not just for the markets here in the US, but also around the globe?
Erin Byrd: I think first and foremost, I mean, this is a new type of infrastructure that we haven't seen in our lifetimes, uh, for many of us. Um, so I think that it's gonna principally change the way businesses operate. I also think that we're still at the very early innings of what AI is going to do. Um, all the pieces have not yet come together, um, and so I think it's easy to look at the individual signals of what's happening without seeing the big picture. Um, and I think as we move forward, that's gonna continue to advance at a pace we haven't seen before as robotics and, and, uh, quantum and other things come online. Uh, so I think that, uh, that's gonna be an instrumental shift in how people think about value and value creation.
Interviewer: Mhm. Yeah, and indeed hindsight is always 2020. We do not have a crystal ball, so we don't know how this technology is going to unfold, but you are right in terms of all of us do anticipate massive change. So, Erin, I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us early here in Vegas at Money 2020. Appreciate it.
Erin Byrd: Thank you.
