AI now powers trading, wealth management, credit scoring, and back-office automation, reducing costs and improving client value. These advances primarily benefit banked populations, leaving over one billion people without formal financial access and a $5.2 trillion small-business credit gap in emerging markets. AI combined with Web 3.0 and alternative datasets can enable collateral-free microcredit, multilingual support, and insurance for underserved customers. Startups in Kenya, Indonesia, Brazil, India, and Latin America use mobile usage, merchant transactions, and AI chatbots to reach last-mile users at scale. Policymakers must create inclusion frameworks and global payment infrastructure to embed equity and enable instant, cross-border transfers.
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a buzzword thrown around in the boardroom. This technology now powers modern finance, shaping how money moves and how decisions are made. Through rapid trading, personalized wealth management, algorithmic credit scoring, and automated back-office functions, AI is helping financial institutions reduce costs and deliver greater value to their clients. Yet these benefits will primarily help those that already have access to a bank-and not the more than one billion that still lack access to formal financial systems.
Collaboration, not disruption, is the way forward. In Kenya, Indonesia, and Brazil, startups are utilizing alternative datasets, such as mobile usage and merchant transactions, to deliver microloans and insurance to last-mile customers overlooked by traditional banks. In India, multilingual AI chatbots are already breaking down language barriers. In Latin America, fintech platforms have leveraged AI to reach millions of customers, making financial services accessible at scale.
Collection
[
|
...
]