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Hi, fintech fam! 💜

Earlier this week, the trusty New York Times (my go-to for reliable news) dropped a big piece on the "Who's Who" in the AI revolution. Surprise, surprise – it was a lineup of a dozen guys, including Elon Musk. Really, NYT?

In response, I compiled a list of 12 incredible women leading the charge in AI.

There's a whole bunch of brilliant minds outside the Silicon Valley boys' club making serious waves in AI, and it's high time we start listening to them.

These moments highlight why giving women and diverse voices a platform to share their insights is crucial. Credit where credit's due, right?

Now, I have a question for YOU – what if I cracked open the Fintech Is Femme platform for you to join me in covering female-led companies, leaders, and news? Would you want the byline? I'm mulling it over for 2024 (teaser alert!).

If you're intrigued, hit up the poll in this newsletter after you catch up on the top stories.

Let's make some noise together! 🚀

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I share news stories and trending pieces I follow. Think of it as a way to quickly find the most essential news in the fintech world.

#1 Reshma Saujani’s AI Innovation Puts Financial Equality First 

Reshma Saujani won’t let the doomsday narrative surrounding artificial intelligence stop her from building a fintech tool to help our society's most vulnerable access financial services. 

Earlier this week, Saujani, the prolific founder of Girls Who Code, announced that her organization, Moms First, is rolling out its inaugural artificial intelligence tool to assist parents in accessing their paid leave benefits.

PaidLeave.ai is a tool specifically tailored to help New York parents access their paid leave benefits. Saujani envisions expanding it nationwide one day, as she highlighted in Time.

So, how does paid leave advance equality? As Saujani explains, the U.S. lacks federally guaranteed paid family leave, leaving many workers—especially low-income women—to take unpaid time off to care for family members or themselves. 

This comes at a steep cost, as the lack of paid family and medical leave amounts to a staggering $22.5 billion in lost wages for working families every single year. 

Significant obstacles to accessing care persist even for those fortunate enough to reside in one of the 13 states or Washington, DC, offering paid leave benefits. Parents, often pressed for time, still have to navigate dense government-penned legal jargon. In reality, many people give up.

This is precisely the issue that AI and financial services can address (hello, fintech). Tools like PaidLeave.ai can transform a complex tome of government paperwork into a simple, user-friendly experience. Parents can ask as many questions as they want in various languages, akin to texting a friend—and PaidLeave.ai can provide prompt answers.

Why It Matters

Consumer finance in 2023 has been quite a rollercoaster, with significant shifts such as rising interest rates, soaring mortgage rates, and the return of student loan repayments making waves in the financial scene.

Consumer fintech has faced challenges, too, from slowed-down investor funding to the complete overhaul of personal finance tools.

However, we cannot let this year's challenges divert our attention from innovating in a sector that desperately needs it.

Ignoring complex problems means leaving money on the table for our businesses while excluding communities needing our innovative tools.

Let’s not forget that an individual's financial landscape comprises numerous elements, from savings, budgeting, investments, 401(k), lending, income and expenses, estate planning, credit management, financial goals, tax management, risk management, emergency cash reserve, cash management, to wealth protection and accumulation. The list goes on.

Last week, I covered the many use cases consumers are interested in for AI to enhance their financial lives. 60% of Americans believe AI will revolutionize financial services within five years.

The people these tools aim to support must be part of the design process from the beginning to build trust in AI among those unfamiliar with these tools. 

To ensure everyone can create these tools, we must provide access to everyone. 

Let’s learn from past technological mistakes and the resulting digital divide, ensuring AI reaches women, young people, people of color, and low-income communities while the technology is still in its relatively early stages.

And let’s be clear: we don’t have to choose between ethical AI and innovative AI. However, it requires a willingness to take bold steps, prioritize people, and collaborate across sectors, industries, and political parties. 

As Saujani says, “Our AI is only as good as we are.”

#2 Google Unveils AI Gemini

Google has officially launched its latest innovation – Gemini.

This new AI model positions Google as a formidable competitor against Microsoft-backed OpenAI, notably surpassing OpenAI's GPT-4 model in various benchmark tests.

One of the notable applications of Gemini is its integration with Bard, Google's generative AI bot.

The Gemini model features three sizes: Gemini Ultra, the largest and most capable; Gemini Pro, scaling across a broad spectrum of tasks; and Gemini Nano, tailored explicitly for targeted tasks and mobile devices.

Starting December 13th, Google plans to make Gemini available for licensing through Google Cloud, allowing customers to integrate it into their applications.

Karen Zhang, fintech lead at Google Cloud, shared on LinkedIn that, unlike other AI models, Gemini was trained to be multimodal, to recognize, understand, and combine different types of information, including text, images, audio, video, and code.

Developers and enterprise customers can access Gemini Pro via the Gemini API in Google AI Studio or Google Cloud Vertex AI.

Android developers will also have the opportunity to leverage Gemini Nano for their applications.

Additionally, Gemini is set to power various Google products, including the Bard chatbot and the Search Generative Experience, which aims to respond to search queries with conversational-style text (though SGE is yet to be widely available).

Why It Matters

For fintech, the introduction of Google's Gemini brings about exciting possibilities.

The AI model's superior performance, as demonstrated by outperforming OpenAI's GPT-4, presents an opportunity for fintech companies to provide highly personalized advice and assistance in critical financial decision-making.

Imagine a scenario where Gemini goes beyond suggesting drawing ideas or creative projects and offers practical financial guidance instead.

Picture receiving precise recommendations on stretching emergency savings after a layoff or efficiently managing no longer beneficial subscriptions – actions that can genuinely impact financial well-being.

Gemini's potential to enhance the capabilities of fintech applications opens doors for more effective and tailored financial services.

The launch of Gemini marks a significant stride forward in the AI race, promising a future where technology not only understands our needs but also assists us in navigating the complexities of financial systems with precision.

#3 Americans Struggle With Retirement, Again

Fintech company Betterment’s 401(k)s and modern financial benefits biz released a new survey showcasing the state of retirement readiness among the U.S. workforce.

It’s not going so well.

Their survey, keeping tabs on the year-over-year vibes from 2022, gathered insights from 1,000 full-time U.S. employees, giving us a closer look at how folks are dealing with the money matters of today and tomorrow.

Why It Matters

Let's face it – the U.S. is caught up in a retirement pickle. A whopping 56 million employed Americans don't have the luxury of a retirement savings program through their jobs. 

It's like being handed the keys to the car without any idea where the road is headed. 

These findings spotlight the reasons behind this retirement uncertainty, indicating the need for solid benefits to help workers juggle their diverse financial needs.

Feeling the Financial Jitters:

• 31% of employees are dealing with a bit (or a lot) of financial instability, up nine points from the previous year.

• Nearly 80% of us are losing sleep over our finances

• Having an emergency fund is like finding a pot of gold for only half of employees (52%), down from last year.

• Almost one-third (30%) dipped into their retirement savings to deal with life's unexpected curveballs. And fewer than half (40%) think they're ready to retire.

Student Debt Blues:

• Almost half (49%) of those dealing with student loans are waving the white flag, saying they're not ready to jump back into payments.

• For 64% of these folks, student debt is the elephant in the room when it comes to saving for the golden years.

• More than three-fifths (61%) of those with mini-me's say they're delaying retirement plans to foot the bill for their kiddo's education.

• Student loans are causing financial nightmares for 70% of us. Can we get a collective "yikes"?

Dealing with Job Drama – Financial Edition:

• About 30% of workers have thought about doing the "quiet quit" in the past year. And 24% have entertained the idea of "rage applying." Yep, emotions are running high.

• But here's the plot twist – 72% of us believe that having our financial ducks in a row would make us less likely to sneak out the back door or submit that fiery resignation letter.

Sure, we all want to ensure our users and employees can sock away something for the future, but life keeps throwing financial curveballs our way – from student loans to keeping the lights on. 

These findings aren't just about retirement; they're a call for companies to step up and ensure their teams have a shot at a financially secure future.

Remember that your customer experience will always be, at most, the quality of your employees.

POLL

_{MARK YOUR CALENDARS}

Join us every Thursday to stay updated on the top fintech events each week! These events are a great way to network, learn, and connect with our fintech community. Let's fill our calendars with these fantastic events - I would love to see you there! If you have an event to share, please inform me!

_{MONDAY 12/11}

[VIRTUAL] Bad Bitch Replay: Did you miss the Fintech Is Femme LinkedIn LIVE event with Lisa Carmen Wang? Don't worry, you can still catch the replay and learn how to unlock your inner potential and succeed in your career and life. Lisa is an investor, serial entrepreneur, and the author of the Bad Bitch Business Bible. Take advantage of this opportunity to gain valuable insights.

_{TUESDAY 12/12}

[NYC] NYC Fintech Women's Holiday Party & IFF Celebration: Our friends are hosting the annual holiday bash at the New York Stock Exchange, and I cannot wait to gather with 300 women and celebrate our brilliance. Who will I see there?

_{THURSDAY 12/14}

[NYC] Rethinking Risk: Hosted by eToro US and the New York Stock Exchange, this panel will be moderated by eToro US CEO Lule Demmissie.

It will bring together financial experts and thought leaders to analyze the current risk narrative, as supported by eToro research, and discuss where it is headed by 2024.

Plus, Lule will be joined by Erin Lydon from Poker Power, an organization that teaches women how to play poker and succeed in the game and life.

I’ll be there, come say hi!

Liquid Assets, Solid Returns

If you're tired of traditional investment options that offer little diversity and unpredictable returns, it's time to consider the world of fine wine and whiskey investing. Vinovest makes it easy for anyone to invest in high-quality wines and whiskies with the potential for excellent returns. It's why the ultra-wealthy have invested in fine wine and whiskey for centuries and now it’s your turn to do it too. Start investing today.

_{HUMANS OF FINTECH}

Anaid Chacon, SVP of Product, Argyle

Trust is a crucial element in the fintech industry, and Anaid Chacon, SVP of Product Development at Argyle, knows just how important it is to establish trust with customers.

In this episode, she and I discuss the challenges of building trust in fintech and how incorporating behavioral finance elements into Argyle's product helps create a more trustworthy user experience.

Anaid also shares her career journey and the importance of authenticity and diversity in fintech.

Later, we explain why women should stop worrying about knowing everything before diving headfirst into the fintech industry.

Watch our conversation here.

_JOBS

Enterprise Sales Executive, Anonybit:

Picture yourself as a sales executive reporting to the CRO and shaping the high-velocity growth of Anonybit. This startup seeks a self-motivated, collaborative, passionate individual ready to hit ambitious targets and elevate their sales career. Be part of a team that crafted a groundbreaking decentralized biometric platform, born from top talent in Israeli cyber intelligence and led by industry veterans. Apply here!

_FINTUNES

🎵 Maeta - Through The Night (feat. Free Nationals)

I absolutely adore it when artists perform their best songs live, and it's even better when they have incredible singing chops. These vocal powerhouses are a rare gem in our world. One artist who definitely falls into this category is Maeta. Get ready to relax and unwind with this amazing tune that sets the perfect cozy vibe.

That’s all for now! Stay safe, everyone. Hug your loved ones. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole