Hey, fintech fam! 💜

After a whirlwind week of fintech events, I’m running on fumes and adrenaline. I always say showing up in person matters—and this past week proved it again.

The access, the insights, the conversations you can’t get anywhere else? That fuels everything I bring back to you here and on LinkedIn.

As a journalist, my edge has always been about getting into the rooms where decisions are being made—and bringing you with me.

Now, companies like Salesforce are partnering with me to make that access even deeper, the insights sharper, and the content more actionable for you.

Today, I’m breaking down one big news story and two exclusive interviews from Salesforce’s Agentforce World Tour in NYC, where I spent the day building with agentic AI and interviewing the execs shaping its future.

Because we’re not here to sit on the sidelines of this tech shift. We’re here to lead it.

Let’s get into it.

#TRENDING

What’s Up In Fintech

Every Thursday, I bring you the latest fintech news and trends, delivering the key insights that matter most to the industry—and you.

#1 Inside Agentforce: Salesforce Bets Big on Agentic AI in Financial Services

Agentic AI today feels like the internet in 1995—that’s the sentiment I’ve been hearing repeatedly from top fintech and tech execs.

It’s about reimagining the very structure of our work, and Salesforce just staked a bold claim in its future with the launch of Agentforce for Financial Services, the company announced on Wednesday. 

Zooming out, the stakes are massive. McKinsey estimates Agentic AI could unlock $4.4 trillion in economic value every year. Salesforce hasn't disclosed exact investment figures for Agentforce, but its high-profile debut and heavy executive alignment make clear: they’re betting big on this paradigm shift.

On Wednesday, I had a front-row seat at Salesforce’s Agentforce World Tour in New York City—an event that surfaced a much bigger question for fintech: What happens when AI stops operating behind the scenes and starts working alongside us?

Why Now—and Why It Matters

The timing couldn’t be more urgent. The financial services industry is grappling with a talent crisis. Nearly 50% of the current insurance workforce is expected to retire in the next 15 years. If productivity levels remain unchanged, the U.S. will face a shortfall of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034.

Meanwhile, customer expectations are rising—and unmet. According to Salesforce’s Connected Financial Services 2025 report, only 21% of consumers are fully satisfied with the personalization they receive from their financial providers. Another 35% say they feel treated like a number.

Agentforce is designed to close that gap. With role-specific agents like the Digital Loan Officer and Financial Advisor Assistant, firms can deliver more personalized, timely, and consistent service. In theory, this shift could make firms more competitive and customer-centric—without ballooning costs.

Digital Coworkers, Not Replacements

Agentforce introduces pre-built, role-based AI agents that operate within Salesforce’s Financial Services Cloud—designed not to replace financial professionals, but to support them by offloading admin-heavy tasks.

The platform focuses on three core functions: helping advisors prep and follow up on client meetings, automating routine service tasks in banking and insurance, and guiding borrowers through loan discovery. All actions are backed by built-in compliance tools, maintaining audit trails and regulatory guardrails.

But the launch also raises key questions: Can AI earn trust in a relationship-driven industry? And what will it take to deploy digital labor at scale—without compromising personalization or compliance?

Real-World Impact

Early adopters are already seeing value. Nexo reported freeing up 400 hours in Q1, increasing chat deflection by 20%. CaixaBank expects faster, more accurate responses across its 20.3 million customers. And firms like Cumberland Mutual and Absa say Agentforce is driving measurable improvements in claims, procurement, and fraud management.

Still, adoption isn’t just about features. It’s about trust. As Salesforce’s Eran Agrios, SVP and GM, Financial Services noted, “AI shouldn’t replace the human connection—it should scale it.”

What It Means for Fintech Leaders

For fintech founders and CIOs, Agentforce is a signal—not just of Salesforce’s roadmap, but of where the industry is heading. The question is no longer if agentic AI will become part of your operations, but how you’ll deploy it in a way that enhances—not undermines—your brand.

Agentforce may be Salesforce’s play, but it sets a precedent for what fintech and financial services companies should expect from enterprise AI:

• No-code deployment that moves fast

• Built-in compliance to satisfy regulators

• Real ROI on automation—not just hype

The Bottom Line

Agentforce showcases a blueprint for the next evolution of work in financial services. And as economic pressure mounts and customer expectations skyrocket, firms will need to rethink how they deliver high-touch, high-trust service at scale.

If agentic AI can do that—without losing the human touch—it could become one of the most important shifts in fintech’s next chapter.

The $4.4 trillion question: Who’s ready to lead it?

#2 How Agentic AI Is the Future of Work, Not a Threat to It

At Salesforce’s Agentforce World Tour in New York City, the key learnings were also about a mindset shift. The kind that reframes fear into opportunity and complexity into utility.

Leading that conversation was Sanjna Parulekar, SVP of Agentforce Product Marketing at Salesforce, who offered a clear-eyed vision that digital labor isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about removing the grind, so people can finally get back to doing their best work.

“Digital labor sounds scary,” Parulekar acknowledged. “But think about your day—how much of it is spent actually creating versus just prepping, documenting, or repeating tasks? Agentforce is here to extend your team, not shrink it.”

Augmentation, Not Automation

That distinction is critical. Parulekar isn’t selling fear. She’s reframing AI not as a harbinger of job loss, but as a tool that gives stretched teams breathing room.

Her own marketing team is proof of concept. “No one’s giving me 500 extra headcount,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean our job to support sales is any less important. So we built an internal Agentforce assistant inside Slack that handles repetitive seller questions.”

That’s the promise of agentic AI: giving teams access to digital workers who can support the business in ways that would be cost-prohibitive—or simply impossible—with headcount alone.

Solving the Trust Gap

Still, Salesforce isn’t naive to the skepticism. AI is at a cultural inflection point. According to Parulekar, what makes today different from the predictive AI wave of years past isn’t just marketing hype—it’s infrastructure. “We didn’t have the compute power. We didn’t have LLMs at this scale. Now we do.”

But technology alone doesn’t build trust. Parulekar sees Salesforce’s edge in the ability to make AI usable and approachable across the org chart.

“When customers come to us, they’re not saying, ‘I want AI,’” she explained. “They’re saying, ‘I want to boost sales productivity,’ or ‘I want to reduce support wait times.’ Our job is to translate generative and agentic AI into answers for those business problems.”

This translation hinges on one thing: data. Salesforce’s strategy is to bake agentic AI directly into the workflows and compliance controls of Financial Services Cloud. The agents aren’t generic bots—they’re embedded digital coworkers that follow firm-specific rules, policies, and goals.

A Future Every Department Can Touch

Crucially, agentic AI isn’t confined to the IT department. “My events lead is talking about agents she wants to build,” Parulekar said. “She saw what was possible from the event, and now she wants to execute. And she can—because it’s low-code. That’s the difference.”

It’s a subtle but powerful shift: moving AI from centralized experimentation to department-level implementation. And it’s working.

“Salesforce has the opportunity to not just keep AI in IT,” Parulekar added, “but to activate it across the business.”

The Bottom Line

The takeaway from Parulekar is clear: this isn’t about science fiction. It’s about giving real people the space to solve real problems faster, better, and with more creativity.

“In a world where trust, transparency, and speed matter more than ever,” she said, “agentic AI isn’t replacing human talent—it’s amplifying it.”

#3 The Digital Co-Worker Has Arrived: How Agentic AI Is Delivering Real ROI in Financial Services 

Finally, let’s get into execution. Specifically, how banks, wealth managers, and insurance providers are already deploying Agentic AI to drive real results across productivity, efficiency, and growth.

Greg Jacobi, VP & GM of Lending and Banking at Salesforce, cut through the hype with a grounded perspective: Agentic AI isn’t a far-off concept. It’s here. It’s working. And it’s redefining what it means to build capacity in financial services.

“We’ve launched Agentforce for Financial Services with a set of pre-built, role-based templates,” Jacobi told me during an exclusive interview. “You can quickly spin up an AI agent—whether it’s for customer service or supporting a financial advisor—and get immediate utility.”

From Hours to Minutes: Where AI Is Already Delivering ROI

For Jacobi, the real promise of Agentic AI lies in freeing human talent from low-value work. 

“Meeting prep is a great example,” he explained. “A moderately complex client relationship can take hours to prep for—just to gather data, check portfolios, and pull insights. We’ve helped customers take that time down from 90 minutes to under 10.”

In other words, Agentic AI isn’t theoretical efficiency—it’s measurable time savings, repurposed into deeper client engagement.

It’s also enabling faster onboarding for junior advisors. 

“Imagine someone earlier in their career having access to a digital co-worker who ensures they’re staying within investment guidelines, preparing effectively, and building trust quickly,” Jacobi said. “That’s not just productivity—it’s a confidence accelerator.”

Solving the Industry’s Talent Crisis

As I shared above, the timing couldn’t be more critical. According to Salesforce, if the current trajectory continues, the U.S. will face a shortfall of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034. At the same time, customer demand for more personalized, responsive financial service is rising rapidly.

“We need to make these jobs more scalable—and frankly, more attractive,” Jacobi said. “Agents help solve that. They take the grunt work off advisors’ plates, giving them more time to focus on what they love: working with clients.”

That kind of support model repositions Agentic AI not as a job killer, but as a force multiplier. 

“If you’re a financial advisor, imagine if you had the budget to hire five people to support your book of business. What roles would you fill?” Jacobi asked. “That’s how we think about Agentforce—giving you a digital team that helps you operate at a higher level.”

Why Digital Labor Is A Strategy

Jacobi doesn’t shy away from the disruption AI will bring. But he challenges the common fear narrative. “There’s massive productivity potential here. Yes, it will change how we work. But it won’t eliminate the need for human talent—it will elevate it.”

In a post-pandemic world where financial advisors are expected to be more than stock pickers—playing roles as life coaches, strategic planners, and wellness guides—the need for human empathy, nuance, and insight is greater than ever. 

“Digital labor lets humans focus on what only humans can do,” Jacobi said.

What Fintech Leaders Should Be Paying Attention To

The implications for fintech leaders are clear:

• AI isn’t optional: It’s quickly becoming the backbone of modern client engagement.
  

• ROI is already happening: The shift from pilot programs to full deployment is well underway.
  

• Scalability matters: As the advisor gap grows, firms that embrace AI will have a serious head start in serving more clients without ballooning costs.
  

The Bottom Line

In an industry built on trust and relationships, it’s easy to assume that AI would be a threat. But as Jacobi makes clear, it’s just the opposite: “Agentic AI gives us the tools to serve better, scale faster, and stay human in the process.”

At a time when the financial services workforce is aging, and client expectations are accelerating, that might be the most important ROI of all.

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_{JUNE 11-12}

[CHARLOTTE] Fintech & Insurtech Generations

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_FINTUNES

🎶 Reneé Rapp - Leave Me Alone

Exciting news—we're getting a brand new album from Reneé Rapp on August 1st! Here's the first single from it. Can't wait to enjoy a summer filled with fresh tunes.

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That wraps up today’s edition—thanks for reading! Until next week, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. See you Tuesday!

Love,

Nicole 💜