Hey, fintech fam! 💜

When I started my career, I wasn’t hosting events — I was reporting from the back row.

I sat through mortgage and auto finance panels, chased down execs, and pulled speakers aside to get the real story. Three months into my second editor role, that flipped: I was suddenly moderating a panel.

I never planned to be a public speaker, but I learned fast: The future doesn’t wait for permission — and neither should we. The only way forward is to stop playing small and take up space.

That’s the same energy behind Fintech Is Femme events today. We build stages that cut through noise and hype to deliver tactical truths that actually move your business and career forward.

On October 8 at the Fintech Is Femme AI Summit, we’re bringing that to life with 200+ fintech leaders, sessions on AI adoption, trust, fraud, and growth — plus a live Startup Pitch Competition (🚨 Only 3–4 founders will be selected to pitch live. Apply here to pitch in front of our lineup of VC judges and attendees).

Because the AI agent wave isn’t coming, it’s here. The question: what future will we build with it?

That’s exactly what we’re unpacking in today’s column, in partnership with Salesforce.

It’s the latest snapshot of how AI agents are scaling inside financial services, where the growth is happening, and what leaders should be doing now.

Let’s dive in.

SPONSORED BY SALESFORCE

AI Agents, Trust, and the Inflection Point for Fintech

Fintech has always been built on a simple promise: trust through access.

It’s why I fell in love with this industry and why I’ve stayed. At its best, fintech is about financial inclusion, human-first design, and giving people more control over their money.

Neobanks said: everyday consumers deserve the same tools as high-net-worth clients.

Open banking said: your data belongs to you.

WealthTech said: wealth-building shouldn’t be reserved for the 1%. 

Now, AI agents are the next chapter in that trust equation. And the speed of adoption? It echoes the early mobile banking boom — or the pandemic era, when 10 million brokerage accounts opened almost overnight.

But let’s be real: people don’t inherently trust AI with their money. 

They don’t trust algorithms. They trust outcomes. 

They trust clarity. They trust when a system is designed with their best interests at the center.

I was reminded of this at a dinner with founders recently. I asked: “Would you trust an AI agent to optimize your finances?”

Half the room said yes. Half froze. One founder laughed and admitted, “I don’t even trust my bank app sometimes.”

That’s the challenge before us. We’re not just training models. We’re training trust.

What Salesforce’s Data Tells Us

That’s why I partnered with Salesforce to dig into their new Agentic Enterprise Index, a first-of-its-kind analysis of how companies are actually using AI agents at scale.

The dataset comes from real businesses that ran agents in production every month for six months. Salesforce also surveyed 2,000+ people — from AI experts and HR leaders to service chiefs and everyday consumers — to capture how agents are reshaping both work and customer experience.

The topline: agent adoption is accelerating, and financial services is one of the fastest movers.

Here are the receipts:

• 119% growth in AI agents deployed in just the first half of 2025.
  

• 80% month-over-month growth in actions completed by those agents.
  

• In financial services, agent activity grew 105% MoM.
  

• Consumers who regularly use AI agents are 222% more likely to say their experience with financial services has improved. (Whoa).
  

And maybe the biggest wake-up call: 94% of consumers opt into AI-powered interactions when given the choice.

The “AI trust gap” we’ve been debating? It’s closing faster than anyone expected.

But here’s the nuance: escalations to humans actually increased — to 32% in Q2 from 22% in Q1. 

On the surface, that might look like AI falling short. In reality, it’s the opposite.

Agents are getting better at knowing their limits — handling routine requests, then routing the complex, sensitive, or high-stakes cases to a human expert. That’s not failure. That’s design. 

That’s trust in action.

Clearly, AI agents aren’t just another SaaS feature. They’re infrastructure.

Think railroads. Once you build them, they decide where commerce flows.

If we let agents be designed purely for margin maximization, they’ll move money toward the players who already have it. But if we design them for access, they can route opportunity to places it’s never been reached before.

That balance — automation paired with human judgment — is what financial inclusion will live or die on.

A Cultural Inflection Point

Let’s zoom out.

AI agents are not just a tech story. They’re a cultural story.

Because money is culture, it shapes what we dream about, how we plan, and who we believe gets to participate in the future.

If agents expand access — if they make it easier for a single mom to budget, or for a first-gen investor to plan for retirement — then we’ve unlocked something revolutionary.

This is where fintech’s DNA matters. Unlike other industries, fintech has always sold purpose alongside product. We told people: tech can work for you. 

Agents embedded into our enterprises and workforce are the next test of whether we actually meant it.

What Founders Are Seeing

I’ve spent the last few months talking to founders, VCs, and operators about how they’re experimenting with agents. A pattern is emerging:

• Founders are piloting agents for personalized guidance — from debt management to compliance and investing.
  

• VCs are grilling startups on defensibility: not “do you have AI?” but “what proprietary data makes your agents smarter than anyone else’s?”
  

• Operators are obsessing over workflows: how to deploy agents without breaking compliance, brand trust, or customer experience.
  

The takeaway? This isn’t optional anymore. If you’re in fintech or financial services, you’re now in the agent economy.

A Founder’s POV

Laurel Taylor, founder and CEO of Candidly, told me what she’s seeing firsthand:

“From what we’ve observed in our own data, debt-heavy and high-income users are the most receptive to AI-driven financial guidance. High earners in particular show strong adoption potential, with younger demos showing the highest usage. A whopping 90% are likely to follow an AI assistant’s guidance.”

Think about that. Ninety percent of people are likely to follow financial advice from an AI agent. 

That’s not just adoption. That’s influence.

For Taylor, who’s tackling America’s $1.8 trillion student debt crisis, that influence is transformative. Her company’s AI assistant, Cait, doesn’t just spit out numbers. It offers empathetic, precise, real-time guidance on repayment, savings, and retirement strategies.

Testing backs her up: Cait helped borrowers choose repayment plans that saved them an average of $32,800 over the life of their loans.

That’s not hype. That’s receipts.

Other Builders to Watch

Laurel isn’t alone. Across fintech, I’m seeing bold experiments:

• Vrinda Gupta pivoted Sequin Financial into Sequin AI, building voice agents that make collections more human, compliance-first, and empathetic.
  

• Anam Lakhani and Eve Halimi, founders of Alinea Invest, rolled out AI Allie — a money coach designed as a “best friend” for Gen Z investors. It doesn’t just execute trades; it personalizes guidance, aligns investments with causes, and reframes wealth-building in a way that feels accessible.
  

As Lakhani put it: “The question shouldn’t be: Can I open a brokerage account? It should be: I have $5,000 — how do I grow it sustainably and confidently from where I am right now?”

That’s what’s at stake. The design of agents will decide whether financial advice feels like a gated luxury or a universal right.

Before and After

So let’s make it vivid:

Before: Consumers are overwhelmed by financial decisions. Advisors are expensive. Banks are clunky.

After: Agents surface the best repayment plan instantly. They flag overdrafts before they happen. They guide you to products that fit your goals.

Before: Employees burn hours on repetitive service tickets.

After: Agents automate the busywork so humans can focus on judgment, empathy, and strategy.

That’s the promise. And according to Salesforce’s data, this isn’t a 2030 vision board. It’s already happening.

Why Finance Hits Different

Here’s the thing about financial services: money isn’t just math. It’s emotion, identity, and trust.

If an AI agent misroutes your luggage claim, you’re annoyed. If it mishandles your retirement plan? That’s existential.

That’s why collaboration matters. Salesforce’s Index found customer service conversations led by agents grew 22x in H1 2025. 

But businesses also increased human handoffs intentionally — because the best model isn’t automation alone. It’s collaboration (read: agents should make the work feel more human, not less). 

The Stakes for Financial Services

So what does this mean for fintech leaders?

• Adoption is inevitable. If you’re not testing agentic workflows now, you’re already behind.
  

• Equity is optional — unless we demand it. If agents are built for inclusion, they can democratize financial literacy and access to financial services, bringing a swell of customers.
  

• Trust is the currency. Consumers are 200% more likely to say their experience improved when they regularly use agents. That’s not just satisfaction. That’s loyalty.
  

Where We Go From Here

We’re at an inflection point.

AI agents are no longer experiments — they’re infrastructure. And in financial services, infrastructure decides who gets access, who builds wealth, and who gets left behind.

So the question isn’t: Are agents coming?

It’s: Who are we building them for?

If fintech leans in — with transparency, equity, and systems designed to elevate not just the wealthy but the everyday — then agents could finally deliver on the promise fintech made from the start: access that scales.

Want to see how the agent economy is already reshaping the finance industry? Salesforce’s full Agentic Enterprise Index has the receipts.

Fintech Is Femme AI Summit Spotlight: Interactive Vibe Coding Session

New session alert! 🚨

You know I love a great panel — but sometimes, the most transformational moments happen when you roll up your sleeves and actually build.

That’s why I’m so excited to announce a brand new session at the Fintech Is Femme AI Summit on October 8 during SF Tech Week:

Interactive Vibe Coding with Anne Cocquyt.

This isn’t a sit-back-and-listen session. Anne (startup leader, bestselling author, and UC Berkeley lecturer) will take us inside the world of vibe coding — a radically fast way to prototype and create with AI tools.

But here’s the twist: you won’t just watch. The audience will actively participate, making real-time decisions that shape the prototype as it comes to life.

For fintech founders, VCs, and operators, this is the closest thing to watching the future get built in real time. And it’s only happening at the Fintech Is Femme AI Summit.

💡 Why this matters:

• See how quickly AI-powered workflows can take an idea → product.

• Get inspired to prototype inside your own org — faster and bolder.

• Leave with knowledge you’ll take with you long after SF Tech Week is over.

🎟️ Tickets are going fast. Grab yours now.

_{I WANT IT, I GOT IT}

• 🎧 Today’s Listen: Throwback to this episode of Fintech Mavericks with Shivani Siroya, Founder & CEO of Tala. Shivani has raised nearly $500M to build a financial system that serves the global majority, and Tala has now disbursed $6B+ in credit to 11M customers across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India. Tune in to her insights here.

• 🚀 Today’s Watch: Anyone else binge The Summer I Turned Pretty finale? Same. That last episode was so good I could watch it twice (and honestly might, once I get through this newsletter and my inbox).

• 🧘‍♀️Today’s Self-Care: I’m deep in founder mode building the summit, which means the final weeks feel like two-a-days in startup land (not recommending it — just keeping it real). Amid the chaos, I forced myself to keep a self-care ritual: my monthly facial and head therapy session. 10/10 recommend having all that tension in your head, face, neck, and shoulders massaged away.

_FINTUNES

🎶 Dress — Taylor Swift

Not a Swiftie (don’t come for me), but this one’s for my fellow Summer I Turned Pretty fans.

_{LET’S CONNECT}

📣 Don’t miss the AI event of the year. Get your tickets here!

📰 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.

🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on female leadership.

📚 Increase your expertise by ordering your copy of my book, Fintech Feminists: Increasing Inclusion, Redefining Innovation, and Changing the Future for Women Around the World.

That wraps up today’s edition—thanks as always for reading! Until next time, keep innovating and challenging the status quo. 

See you Thursday!

Love,

Nicole 💜