If we’re going to write about financial artificial intelligence, we’d better have a vision for the future.
But that’s not enough. We also need some deep knowledge both of technology and of the financial services industry. We need to be able to write—even in the era of generative AI. Most of all, we need to have at least some passion and affection for three industries, simultaneously: publishing, finance and technology, because this is where they all collide.
Bill and Cindy Taylor, who co-founded this newsletter, had all of these things.
Welcome to AI & Finance, where we are once again running down a busy week for artificial intelligence and financial services—but first, we’re addressing the loss of two of the founding minds of Digital Wealth News and AI & Finance, and, in our case, two friends.
We met Cindy first. She was in our experience the more enthusiastic and outgoing of the pair, probably because she was also the publicist, and she was relentless. Later, at a conference, we met Bill, and eventually, at our former employer, we edited some of his work.
What struck us first about Bill was that he was an extremely heterodox thinker, hence his knowledge, comfort and overall embrace of advanced trading techniques, esoteric securities, cryptocurrency and cutting-edge technologies. Bill could be as friendly and bubbly as Cindy, but what really drew us to him were his unusual ideas and perspectives. In a way, he gave us permission to be more fearless with our ideas.
In what was otherwise a pretty low point in our career and in our personal life, when we were stuck in a journalistic dead-end where our creativity and thought were constrained and discouraged, when we were about to accept either early retirement in our mid-40s or a wholesale career change, Bill and Cindy offered us what was not only a new way to publish our byline, but also for the first time an opportunity to say what we really think and feel about the industries we’re writing about.
After years of post-Covid malaise, Digital Wealth News was a lifeline. A path to intellectual freedom. When we started AI & Finance, we had huge dreams for what it could become. The Taylors encouraged us not only to speak our mind (within reason), but also to let our freak flag fly (also within reason).
We were here not because of the paychecks (which, to be frank, were never very big), but because Cindy and Bill’s relentless enthusiasm was wonderful to work with. And we’re still here because of Cindy and Bill, because they were the ones who lifted us up, professionally, when quite a few people weren’t even responding to our messages and emails, and they allowed us to be ourselves.
As a result, for the first time in a long time, we enjoyed the act of writing and reporting again. And as a team, we were enthusiastic about coming up with new ideas to both spread the word about artificial intelligence and financial services, and to create a profitable venture from our zeal and hard work.
Of course, then the real world intervened, and in pretty quick succession, both Bill and Cindy fell ill. As months passed after their cancer diagnoses, both of them continued to work. Hard. To the point that it was easy for those of us who were working remotely to forget that they were battling such a terrible disease, for so long.
And because of that, the news of their loss—Cindy’s in February, Bill’s last month—took us by surprise. In both cases, we were in active discussions with them in the days before their passing. As I write this almost three weeks after losing Bill, it still seems surreal.
But we’re still here. Their vision is very much alive—and what’s more, we’re finding new ways to breathe life into that vision.
We hope that excites you as much as it excites us.
Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with us—we’ll do our best not to let Bill and Cindy down.
Let’s get to your headlines…
Adastra
Adastra, a global leader in AI and data-driven transformation, today announced that it has been awarded Databricks’ Brickbuilder Specialization status in three industries central to its practice: Financial Services; Manufacturing, Transportation & Energy; and Security & Governance.
The Brickbuilder Specialization is awarded only after an independent assessment and earning it in three industries at once signals the breadth of Adastra’s delivery on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.
The Databricks Brickbuilder Specialization is a formally assessed status that partners earn against a defined set of requirements. To qualify, a partner must show certified technical and sales expertise, live customer implementations already running on the platform, named customer success stories, and ongoing published thought leadership. Because the assessment is based on recent, verifiable work and must be renewed regularly, clients can trust that the expertise behind the badge is current, not historical. The Security & Governance specialization carries an additional requirement: a live technical assessment conducted in front of Databricks’ own specialist teams.
Allvue Systems
Allvue Systems today launched Intelligent Loan Operations, uniting the full lifecycle of a loan transaction — from the moment a notice arrives from a loan agent to the moment its data is consolidated into the general ledger — on a single platform powered by agentic AI. No other provider in the market offers a single, credit-native platform that connects loan notice capture, investment accounting, cash reconciliation, general ledger connectivity, multiple servicing models, and AI-powered analytics.
Private capital firms have sharply increased their AI spending, but most of that investment has gone to the front office. According to the 2026 Allvue GP Outlook Survey, 87% of firms use AI for investment due diligence and document review. Meanwhile, just 3% apply it to reconciliation work, even as 70% of operations teams cite manual work and Excel dependence as their top technology challenge. Loan notices still arrive as unstandardized documents to be rekeyed by hand. Cash reconciliation remains largely a spreadsheet exercise, with analysts spending more time matching obvious records than resolving the exceptions that carry real risk. The result is a structural gap: existing point solutions automate parts of loan operations, but until now, no single platform has connected them into one continuous, auditable process.
Together, on one platform, these capabilities form an industry first. It’s the combination, not any single piece, that makes Allvue the only provider that can process a transaction from notice receipt through to general ledger consolidation on a credit-native platform without manual handoffs. It’s also where Allvue’s AI strategy is headed next: building intelligence into the connective tissue between systems, so it travels with the data at every step from notice to ledger.
Amplify Technology
Amplify Technology (“Amplify”), the enterprise growth platform built on an AI-native data lake, today announced a partnership with Ned Davis Research (“NDR”), a leading independent investment research firm, to deliver NDR’s trusted institutional research as turnkey managed portfolios through the Amplify platform. The collaboration enables financial advisors to implement NDR’s investment models across every client account on any custodial platform, eliminating the day-to-day operational demands of portfolio management.
NDR’s investment models are built on decades of objective, data-driven market research designed to help advisors navigate changing market conditions through intentional portfolio construction and risk management. By delivering their models to Amplify’s network of advisors, NDR eliminates the need to build and maintain models internally. Advisors continue to lead their client relationships and investment strategy, while Amplify manages trading, rebalancing, and performance reporting across their clientele.
Asset Vantage
Asset Vantage, an AI-led wealthtech SaaS platform built by a family office for family offices and part of the UNIDEL Group, today announced the appointment of Nicole Eberhardt as its Global Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2026. Nicole, who previously served as Asset Vantage’s Managing Director, North America, will lead the company’s next phase of global growth, product innovation, and market expansion.
Today, Asset Vantage supports more than 400 families across 10 countries, helping manage over $400 billion in assets through a unified platform that brings together data aggregation, accounting, portfolio reporting and analytics, and document management. The platform provides family offices and their trusted advisors, including Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) and Multi-Family Offices (MFOs), with a single source of truth across entities, currencies, and asset classes. By bringing together the general ledger and the investments book, it delivers secure, audit-ready data while ensuring clients retain complete ownership and control of their information. In addition, the platform safeguards highly sensitive financial information while supporting the governance needs of modern family offices.
Nicole’s appointment comes as family offices navigate increasing complexity across global investments, governance, reporting and cross-border structures, while artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes the future of wealth management. She brings more than 25 years of experience in financial services technology. An accountant by training, Nicole has spent her career building and scaling the accounting and reporting platforms relied upon by family offices, alternative investment managers and their trusted advisors.
Billing Platform
BillingPlatform, the leader in AI-native monetization for global enterprises, today announced the expansion of its executive team with three strategic appointments: Steven Springsteel as Chief Financial Officer, Rob Zwiebach as Chief Product Officer and Chris King as Chief Customer Officer. The hires deepen BillingPlatform’s executive bench across finance, product and customer success as the company moves to capture the AI-native usage-to-cash market opportunity with enterprises worldwide.
In what MGI Research describes as “one of the most strategic software markets in enterprise technology,” BillingPlatform has achieved over 500% revenue growth in the past five years, serving enterprise leaders including J.P. Morgan, DIRECTV, Instacart, FIS, CCC Intelligent Solutions, Panera, Carrier and Clear Channel. The company’s AI-native usage-to-cash platform spans metering, billing, and revenue recognition on a single unified metadata model, enabling enterprise teams to configure, analyze and govern their billing operations conversationally.
Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, today announced the expanded availability of Expedited Giving and Expedited Giving+ within its YourCause® from Blackbaud® suite of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employee engagement solutions. Expedited Giving delivers corporate and employee donations to nonprofits 90% faster than the industry average, while Expedited Giving+ is the industry’s fastest disbursement of corporate and employee giving, enabling direct-to-nonprofit donations in near real time.
These innovations reflect Blackbaud’s continued focus on helping the social impact sector operate at the speed of need, ensuring nonprofits can access critical funding faster amid ongoing economic pressure and shifting donor dynamics. Recent data from the Blackbaud Institute suggests that while overall charitable giving remains resilient, many organizations, especially smaller nonprofits, are facing increased funding challenges.
Blackbaud is uniquely positioned to support both ends of this social impact ecosystem, connecting corporate impact and social impact in ways that no other provider can, supporting the company’s vision to unleash resources at the speed of need. As both a creator and consumer of cutting-edge AI tools, Blackbaud is leveraging AI in product development to increase the pace of innovation, delivering these meaningful capabilities to customers faster than ever to accelerate social impact outcomes.
Blackbaud
Blackbaud (NASDAQ: BLKB), the world’s leading provider of AI-powered solutions for social impact, today announced a new Microsoft 365 Copilot-enabled agent for Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® that allows customers to surface their data and insights in Microsoft 365 applications including Copilot Chat, Outlook, Teams, Word, and Excel. The new experience enables fundraising professionals to access trusted, real-time insights from their Raiser’s Edge NXT data using natural-language prompts—without leaving the tools where work already happens.
Raiser’s Edge NXT is recognized as Microsoft Nonprofit AI Certified Software, a reflection of its position as a trusted, industry-leading platform for fundraising and engagement. The Copilot-enabled agent builds on this foundation, extending the power of Blackbaud’s AI into the Microsoft ecosystem while maintaining the data integrity, governance, and security that nonprofit organizations rely on.
Recent data from the Blackbaud Institute shows that while most social impact organizations are beginning to adopt AI, the resulting benefits are uneven. Blackbaud is focused on making sure the sector can benefit fully from the massive potential of this transformational technology—through educational resources, like the free AI for Social Impact Certification Course, as well as platform solutions like Agents for Good™ and integrations with existing AI tools like Copilot.
Brightfin
Brightfin, the only IT Financial Management (ITFM) and Technology Expense Management (TEM) solution built natively on ServiceNow, today announced it has achieved Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate Authorization in partnership with Knox Systems (Knox), the largest, longest-running federal managed cloud. This authorization provides federal agencies with access to a solution delivering true visibility into two of the largest and most difficult to manage IT cost categories in the government space, telecom, and mobile.
Federal agencies struggle with IT spend data that is siloed and disconnected, limiting their ability to manage IT hardware and software assets and their expenses efficiently. As a result, they are often stuck in a reactive posture, scrambling to keep pace with evolving government requirements instead of getting ahead of them.
With this FedRAMP Authorization, Brightfin will provide federal agencies with access to its ITFM and TEM capabilities in a compliant environment, enabling them to bring chargeback and cost modeling together with specialized telecom and mobile expertise and, ultimately, manage the biggest IT cost drivers in government. Agencies gain unified visibility across previously siloed IT spend, enabling proactive asset and cost management instead of reactive compliance. Additionally, Brightfin helps agencies extend that same visibility and cost discipline to AI and cloud spend, optimizing costs so they can scale innovation while maintaining budget control.
Brightfin
Brightfin, the only IT Financial Management (ITFM) and Technology Expense Management solution built natively on ServiceNow, today announced the appointment of Preeti Shukla as Chief Product and AI Officer (CPAIO). In this newly created role, Shukla will lead product strategy and artificial intelligence across the Brightfin platform, advancing the company’s mission to make every technology decision grounded in financial truth, operational clarity, and intelligent automation.
Shukla brings two decades of experience building and scaling customer-facing, enterprise-grade B2B SaaS, fintech, and marketplace products across Fortune 100 companies and high-growth startups, including leadership roles at Workday and Oracle. A recognized authority on applied AI, she is a Gartner-recognized thought leader and author on AI SaaS and product engineering, with deep expertise in secure, compliant financial systems and agentic AI. Her appointment reflects Brightfin’s commitment to building intelligence into its products from the ground up rather than bolting it onto legacy systems.
As CPAIO, Shukla will own the next phases of Brightfin’s AI roadmap: expanding the company’s context-aware intelligence layer and AI agents that understand the language of IT finance, and driving AI-powered optimization that proactively surfaces savings and acts on them. She will partner closely with engineering, customers, and go-to-market teams to translate Brightfin’s unified budget-to-billing data model into measurable outcomes for enterprise IT and finance leaders.
Coforge Limited
Coforge Limited (NSE:COFORGE), a global AI-native engineering services leader, today announced the launch of a new business unit focused on the Private Equity (PE) sector.
Drawing on Coforge management’s exceptional record of turning around businesses including NIIT Technologies, Incessant Technologies, SLK Global, Cigniti Technologies, and Encora LLC, this new unit will leverage Coforge’s expertise and playbooks to help PE firms drive value.
Private equity firms are increasingly focused on operational transformation, EBITDA improvement, and scaling growth vectors to drive investment returns. Changing market conditions, challenging valuations, and longer hold periods have made strong portfolio performance and technology transformation essential.
Complete Controller
Complete Controller, a nationally recognized provider of cloud-based bookkeeping, controller, and Client Accounting Services (CAS), today announced the launch of the next generation of CAS-i (Client Accounting Services Intelligence)—a fully reimagined AI-powered platform and mobile app designed to help businesses stay connected to their finances through intelligent automation, real-time financial visibility, and experienced human accounting professionals.
Originally introduced as a client portal, CAS-i has evolved into a comprehensive Client Accounting Services platform supporting every stage of the client journey—from the first conversation and onboarding through document management, financial reporting, ongoing account monitoring, and proactive financial guidance.
As organizations increasingly adopt artificial intelligence while demanding greater security, transparency, and human accountability, Complete Controller developed CAS-i to combine intelligent automation with experienced accounting professionals—not replace them. The result is a modern accounting experience that helps clients receive answers faster, reduce administrative burdens, identify issues earlier, and make more informed financial decisions.
Corry Capital Advisors
Corry Capital Advisors (“CCA”), an investment firm specializing in life settlements, is pleased to announce that John Daniel has joined the firm as Director of Analytics and AI Strategy. In this role, he builds upon CCA’s capabilities in leveraging data and advanced machine learning tools to assess and mitigate risk when buying and holding policies.
Mr. Daniel brings over a decade of experience in financial services and insurance, including financial analysis and consulting roles at First Horizon National Corporation and Highmark Health (a Blue Cross Blue Shield company). Throughout his career, he has developed sophisticated financial models, led enterprise-level analytics initiatives, and leveraged artificial intelligence to improve decision-making and operational efficiency.
In his prior roles he focused on integrating AI into complex financial and operational workflows, positioning organizations to capitalize on emerging technologies. He also previously served as a director of one of CCA’s managed offshore funds, developing familiarity with the firm’s investment philosophy and operations.
Decade
Decade, an AI-native wealth advisory company, announced today it is emerging from stealth with an $85 million seed round backed by Greenoaks, Benchmark and Diffusion – the largest seed funding ever raised for a Latin American startup.
Decade’s ambition drew three global investment firms to back a company in Brazil: two founders with a track record of building the region’s banking infrastructure and a plan to create an entirely new category of financial services. Rather than building another bank, brokerage or investment platform, Decade aims to use artificial intelligence to deliver at scale a level of financial intelligence previously reserved for the wealthiest individuals and the large teams of advisors working on their behalf—laying the foundation for what the company believes will be a new generation of millionaires.
Co-founder and CEO Vitor Olivier joined Nubank as one of its earliest engineers, rising to Chief Technology Officer as the company grew into the world’s largest digital bank, serving more than 100 million customers across Latin America. Co-founder and Head of AI Felipe Meneses, the first Brazilian selected for the Thiel Fellowship, founded Hyperplane, an AI company focused on financial institutions that Nubank later acquired – bringing the two founders together to lead some of the bank’s largest AI initiatives.
DeepVest
DeepVest, an AI-powered investment platform for financial advisors that enables CIO-level portfolio analysis and personalized proposals at scale, today announced the launch of MonitorLab, a comprehensive market monitoring and alerts platform layer helping advisors, wealth managers and investors stay aware of and react to market-moving developments. Using a simple natural-language interface, users can create sophisticated market alerts across securities, portfolios, earnings events, regulatory filings and macroeconomic signals, creating an always-on monitoring layer, continuously evaluating more than 50 technical, quantitative and market signals in real time.
With MonitorLab users can create alerts using plain English, such as monitoring for a technical indicator crossover, portfolio drift from target allocation, performance versus a benchmark index, an earnings report, a portfolio risk threshold or a significant economic event. By replacing manual dashboard-watching with automated, event-driven intelligence, MonitorLab helps users identify risks and opportunities the moment they become actionable.
Building on the launches of Advisor Hierarchy, which enables personalized investment recommendations at scale, Behavioral Investment Suitability Analysis, which integrates behavioral finance into the recommendation process and the Firm-Level Governance Framework, which helps firms establish consistent investment oversight, MonitorLab represents DeepVest’s latest step toward creating a more intelligent and connected advisor experience. Together, these capabilities help firms combine portfolio intelligence, behavioral insights, governance controls and market monitoring within a single platform.
Deloitte
As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly transforms how organizations operate, Deloitte today announced expanded AI Controls and Assurance services and solutions designed to help organizations confidently adopt, scale and govern AI across the enterprise.
From early exploration to enterprise deployment, Deloitte’s enhanced services provide end-to-end support across the AI lifecycle — combining advisory and assurance services across governance frameworks and AI-enabled transformation to help organizations manage risk while unlocking value.
The need is increasingly urgent. While 74% of companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years, only 21% report having a mature governance model for autonomous agents — highlighting a growing gap that puts organizations at significant risk as they scale AI systems, according to Deloitte’s “State of AI in the Enterprise” report.
Exzeo Group
Exzeo Group Inc. (NYSE: XZO) today announced the launch of Exzeo Ventures, a new innovation division dedicated to developing AI-native products, services and businesses designed to reshape the future of insurance and beyond.
While many organizations are focused on using artificial intelligence to improve existing workflows, Exzeo Ventures is being established with a broader mission: identifying opportunities that only become possible when AI fundamentally changes the economics.
The division’s primary focus will be on internally developed initiatives that leverage Exzeo’s expertise in AI-native products and insurance. Areas of initial focus include agentic AI for catastrophe claims, next-generation underwriting and risk transfer solutions, distribution automation, and other emerging opportunities where AI can unlock new products and business models.
Finster AI
Finster AI, the AI intelligence layer for financial professionals, today announced a strategic investment by UBS Investment Bank as part of Finster’s Series B financing round, alongside FactSet.
The investment relates to the development of AI-native workflows, secure enterprise systems, and trusted data infrastructure to support financial institutions in areas such as research, analysis, and client service.
Finster AI is an AI-native platform designed to support research, analysis, and content workflows across investment banking and asset management. Finster’s intuitive platform uses AI to integrate structured financial data, unstructured content, and institutional knowledge into unified workflows to generate faster, traceable insights, and enhance client engagement.
Flytxt
Flytxt, a leading provider of Enterprise AI solutions for Marketplace Optimisation, today announced that IIFL Capital Services Limited, a full-service investment and wealth management firm, has adopted its award winning AI to strengthen investor engagement and accelerate Assets Under Management (AUM) growth through intelligent investment recommendations.
With over 15 years of AI innovation, Flytxt currently serves more than 80 enterprise customers across 50 countries, helping them transform customer data into actionable intelligence and driving measurable business outcomes.
As investor expectations continue to evolve, financial service providers are under increasing pressure to deliver highly relevant and timely investment guidance. By leveraging Flytxt’s AI platform, IIFL Capital can better understand investor behavior, identify emerging investment opportunities, and engage customers with recommendations aligned to their financial goals and investment preferences.
FMG Suite
FMG Suite (FMG), the leading marketing and growth platform for financial advisors, insurance professionals and enterprises, today announced four additions to its senior team: Christian Short as Senior Vice President of AI Strategy & Operations; Nathan Worthington as Senior Vice President of Customer Success; and Kevin Jurick and Jeremy Kowalski as Strategic Enterprise Account Executives.
These appointments follow FMG’s recent board expansion and reflect the company’s accelerating investment in the next phase of its platform strategy. As broker-dealers, RIAs, wirehouses, insurance organizations and asset managers increasingly deploy FMG on behalf of advisors and agents at scale, the firm is expanding leadership in the areas that matter most to enterprise success: AI strategy and infrastructure, customer success and enterprise sales. Together, these hires strengthen FMG’s ability to help institutions deliver compliant growth, deepen advisor engagement and bring more of the wealth management ecosystem onto the platform.
Guidewire
Zurich Group Germany, part of Zurich Insurance Group, and Guidewire (NYSE: GWRE) have announced that Zurich Group Germany will migrate its entire core platform to Guidewire Cloud, with a focus on unlocking agentic artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and expand its digital strategy with Guidewire Jutro to completely modernise its business.
Zurich Group Germany has been a Guidewire customer since 2015, using the platform to power its personal lines underwriting, billing, and claims operations. It will become the most recent Zurich business unit to migrate to Guidewire cloud, which combines resilient, trusted infrastructure with secure cloud services to enhance and extend the power of an insurer’s core applications.
Zurich Group Germany will also subscribe to the Guidewire digital platform to rapidly design and deploy personalised customer experiences integrated with their core systems.
Mayer Brown
Mayer Brown today announced that, under a strategic arrangement with Scissero, it will offer clients an integrated issuance solution for structured products, combining document automation, document verification and the firm’s legal opinions. The initiative brings together Mayer Brown’s market-leading structured products practice and Scissero’s AI-powered workflow and verification services. The arrangement enables Mayer Brown to offer clients a streamlined straight-through-processing (STP) approach to structured products issuance.
Under the arrangement, a client’s documents are set up on an issuer’s chosen document automation platform. Scissero’s AI-powered legal workflow platform and document verification services then support Mayer Brown’s opinion process by validating that the documentation generated through the client’s document automation platform corresponds to the approved document templates and pre-approved trade parameters. This innovative, AI-powered approach, with appropriate human oversight, allows clients to realize significant efficiencies in the issuance process, enabling them to issue products with lower notional amounts and tailor offerings more effectively to individual distribution channels. While initially focused on U.S. SEC-registered products, the initiative also has applications for exempt as well as European offerings, structured UITs and defined outcome products.
The arrangement brings together complementary capabilities. Scissero provides an AI-powered legal workflow platform alongside document verification services designed to support Mayer Brown’s opinion process by validating the integrity and consistency of the documentation generated through the client’s document automation platform. Mayer Brown provides the legal services associated with the issuance of the structured product, including the rendering of the relevant legal opinions.
Mercury
Mercury, the technology company providing radically different banking*, today launched Mercury Spend, an expanded spend management solution that lets businesses issue employee and agent cards and manage team spending. While founders are building companies faster than ever, with leaner teams, their finance tools have not kept pace. Spend combines intelligent budgets and controls, self-enforcing expense policies, and a new class of cards designed specifically for AI agents. Unlike traditional spend management tools that require a finance team to configure, integrate, and manage, Mercury Spend is built directly into the banking dashboard, so the controls, visibility, and data needed to run a business are all in one place.
As part of the Spend launch, Mercury is also releasing a limited-edition IO card designed in collaboration with sculptor, ceramicist, and designer Simone Bodmer-Turner. The card is derived from an original sculpture Bodmer-Turner created for Mercury, rendered with premium layered printing that makes it tactile and dimensional.
Noble
Noble Investment Group (“Noble”) today announced the appointment of Stephen Paul as Senior Director of Data, Technology and Innovation. The newly created leadership role reflects the firm’s continued investment in enterprise data, artificial intelligence and technology capabilities designed to enhance investment decision-making, strengthen portfolio performance and extend the advantages of Noble’s integrated institutional investment platform on behalf of its global investors.
Mr. Paul will lead the continued development and execution of Noble’s enterprise data, technology and artificial intelligence strategy. Working alongside the firm’s senior leadership, he will establish standards and capabilities that connect information across the investment lifecycle and the broader organization, helping Noble translate its platform scale, operating experience, and data into faster insights, stronger pattern recognition, and more consistent execution across the portfolio.
Mr. Paul brings more than twenty years of experience leading data, analytics, AI and application development initiatives. Throughout his career, he has built high-performing technology teams and delivered platforms that turn complex data and workflows into faster, more informed decisions. Most recently at Starr Insurance, he led the development of AI-powered underwriting and forecasting tools that support day-to-day operations. Earlier in his career, he held data and technology leadership roles across the insurance, logistics, and financial services industries, with experience spanning FP&A, corporate finance, and data engineering.
NTT DATA
NTT DATA, a global leader in AI, digital business and technology services, today announced NTT DATA AI for Insurance, an AI-native agentic solution that converts complex core insurance workflows into governed, repeatable services. Built for highly regulated insurance environments, the Service-as-Software solution combines configurable AI agents, insurance-specific data models, workflow orchestration and enterprise-grade governance to maintain auditability, regulatory guardrails and human oversight.
NTT DATA AI for Insurance helps carriers modernize underwriting, claims, customer service and other core insurance workflows while improving productivity across the enterprise. Powered by NTT DATA AIVista, the company’s AI-native product platform, the solution combines a prebuilt insurance foundation with flexible configuration and targeted customization, enabling rapid deployment while adapting to each carrier’s products, processes, operating model and regulatory requirements.
The solution is designed for open integration with existing carrier systems and enterprise technology environments, enabling insurers to deploy AI capabilities without core system lock-in. Its model-routing capabilities also help carriers avoid lock-in to any single foundation model.
Options Technology
Options Technology (Options), the leading managed IT services and technology solutions provider, today announced the immediate availability of expanded market data feeds following a record-breaking first half of 2026. This launch delivers enhanced connectivity for U.S. options and equities as well as Middle Eastern markets, supporting clients with expanded normalized and native feed coverage from day one. Options’ connectivity solution is built on global trading infrastructure, offering low-latency access and scalable integration across asset classes.
June set a U.S. options volume record with 76.4 million daily contracts traded. This expansion now provides clients with access to numerous new U.S. options depth feeds, enabling seamless integration into existing trading workflows through a comprehensive and proven market infrastructure.
Options stands out as one of the few to offer full OPRA distribution into Europe today. As the market continues to grow and new venues like IEX Options and MX2 (expected in H2 2026) come online, seamless technology connectivity remains essential for institutional participants navigating increasing market fragmentation.
S&P Global
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) today announced an expanded collaboration with Microsoft to integrate the breadth of S&P Global AI-ready data, insights and analytics into Microsoft 365 Copilot workflows and agentic experiences. The collaboration gives customers a seamless way to access S&P Global intelligence within the Microsoft tools they already use, helping them move from complexity to clarity faster with information that is transparent, traceable and grounded in trusted sources.
As organizations increasingly use AI to navigate growing volumes of information, the quality, context, and traceability of the underlying data are essential. The integration is enabled by the S&P Global AI Data Portal’s Deterministic Retrieval solution (also known as the Kensho LLM-ready API), which allows Microsoft 365 Copilot and related experiences to access S&P Global content with accurate, cited, and verifiable results.
Building on the existing integration of S&P Global Energy AI Ready Data in Microsoft 365 Copilot, this expanded collaboration brings S&P Global capabilities into the Microsoft ecosystem in a way that supports how customers already work. Rather than placing data into a standalone AI environment, the solution connects licensed S&P Global content to Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences, including a Copilot in Excel connector for analyst workflows and a plugin for agentic experiences in Copilot Cowork.
Savvy Advisors
Savvy Advisors Inc., a federally registered investment advisor (RIA) affiliated with Savvy Wealth, Inc. (“Savvy”), today announced the addition of Blue Barn Wealth (“Blue Barn”) and Paragon Private Wealth Management (“Paragon”) to its growing network of independent advisors. Together, the two firms bring approximately $550 million in combined assets under management (AUM) to the platform. The additions come amid rapid growth for Savvy, which has brought on over $4 billion in recruited assets in 2026 alone and now holds more than $8 billion in total AUM, a 4x increase year-over-year. Blue Barn Wealth and Paragon reinforce Savvy’s reputation as the destination for independent advisors who want AI-native technology and dedicated operational support without sacrificing their brand, their clients, or their time.
Blue Barn Wealth, headquartered in Orem, Utah, manages approximately $300 million in AUM and serves more than 220 client households and multiple 401(k) plans across the United States and internationally. The firm, which traces its roots to 1994 and was merged under its current ownership by Jeff Brimhall, PhD, CFP®, CFA, in 2017, provides comprehensive wealth management services, including tax planning, retirement planning, charitable giving strategies, estate planning coordination and alternative investments specialization. Blue Barn works with individuals and families seeking to align their financial decisions with their broader goals and values through a planning-focused approach to wealth management. Additionally, Blue Barn services 401(k) plans for several companies. For Blue Barn, joining Savvy reflected a deliberate choice to spend more time on clients and less on the operational demands that come with running an independent firm.
Based in Franklin, Tennessee, Paragon manages approximately $250 million in assets and serves affluent individuals, families and entrepreneurs nationwide. Founded by Allen Buckley, CFP®, the firm provides integrated wealth management through investment management, financial planning, tax planning and tax preparation services. Paragon works primarily with business owners and professionals, including attorneys, physicians, dentists and other practice owners. Buckley began his career in financial services in 2003, focusing initially on retirement planning for educators and healthcare professionals before transitioning to the independent RIA model in 2009.
SoFi
CAZ Investments (“CAZ”), a leading Houston-based alternative investment firm, today announced that investors utilizing the SoFi Invest® platform can now invest in two CAZ funds, providing streamlined, cost-efficient access to diversified private-market assets.
The collaboration advances CAZ’s longstanding mission to broaden access to investment opportunities that have historically been available primarily to institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors. Through SoFi Invest, individual “do-it-yourself” investors can now incorporate professionally managed private-market strategies into their portfolios through a familiar digital platform.
The CAZ funds available through SoFi Invest provide exposure to differentiated investment themes shaping the global economy. These include ownership interests in leading alternative asset management firms through GP stakes; professional sports franchises; the infrastructure and energy required to power artificial intelligence, robotics, and rising global electricity demand; and the modernization of the space and defense industries.
Tavant
Tavant, a leading platform-powered AI transformation specialist, today announced the integration of its TOUCHLESS® AI Mortgage Automation platform with the Empower® loan origination solution (LOS) from Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter), an innovative leader in mortgage technology.
The integration brings Tavant’s advanced, AI-driven, automation capabilities into the Empower ecosystem, helping lenders streamline underwriting, accelerate cycle times, enhance loan quality and extend Tavant’s exception-based, data-driven, loan decisioning to Empower LOS users. Operational gains for lenders include reduced cost per loan, automation of repetitive and time-intensive tasks, improved data accuracy and consistency through standardized AI-powered automation and the ability to scale loan production without proportional increases in headcount. Borrowers benefit as well, experiencing faster approvals, fewer documentation requests and more transparent, predictable loan timelines.
The integration is designed to help lenders automate key stages of the mortgage lifecycle, including loan setup, document classification, data extraction and intelligent comprehension, processing, underwriting, conditions management and pre-close quality checks. By reducing workflow fragmentation and manual handoffs, the solution supports faster decision-making, greater consistency, and a more connected loan manufacturing process.
Trading Technologies
Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global capital markets technology provider, announced today the appointment of Sal Lombardi as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Lombardi has more than 25 years of experience leading finance across multiple industries, including fintech, enterprise software and logistics technology.
Lombardi joins TT after serving as CFO of Auctane, now operating as ShipStation Global, the leading intelligent logistics platform powering millions of businesses and billions of shipments annually. Prior to that role, he served as CFO for C1, a solutions-based technology company specializing in AI-powered security, infrastructure and communications. Previously, Lombardi held various senior leadership positions at cxLoyalty over a period of 20 years.
Traxxion
Traxxion, the AI-powered workforce management platform built for frontline organizations, today announced the launch of Traxxion Wallet powered by Payactiv, a new embedded financial wellness solution that provides employees with on-demand access to earned wages, same-day digital tips and mileage payments, and a suite of financial wellness tools from within the Traxxion mobile app.
Developed through a strategic partnership with Payactiv, the pioneer and leader in Earned Wage Access (EWA), Traxxion Wallet expands the capabilities of Traxxion’s workforce management platform by combining AI-driven scheduling, time and attendance, employee communications, and workforce intelligence with trusted financial wellness services. The result is a seamless employee experience that helps organizations strengthen workforce engagement while giving employees greater financial flexibility between paydays.
Traxxion Wallet enables employees to securely access a portion of their earned but unpaid wages as they accrue, transfer funds to their preferred bank account, debit card, or Payactiv Visa® Card, withdraw cash at participating Walmart locations, pay bills, access Uber ride services, and fund Amazon Cash accounts. Employees also receive access to free financial counseling, saving tools, budgeting resources, and exclusive marketplace discounts designed to improve long-term financial well-being.
Webull
Webull (NASDAQ: BULL), a leading online investment platform, today announced significant expansions to its AI-powered investing ecosystem, including native connectors for ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, the launch of Webull Command Line Interface (“CLI”), and an enhanced suite of Webull Model Context Protocol (“MCP”) skills. The announcement builds upon Webull’s recently launched MCP server, which enables investors to interact with Webull’s OpenAPI, market intelligence, account insights, and research tools using natural-language AI prompts.
Together, these innovations enable investors, developers, and AI agents to access Webull’s market data, account services, investment research, and developer tools through conversational AI interfaces, automation tools, and developer workflows.
Webull’s new native app connectors allow users to securely connect their accounts directly to ChatGPT, Claude and Grok, enabling natural-language access to account information, market data, investment research, portfolios, watchlists, and order activity.
Zocks
SEI® (NASDAQ:SEIC) today announced a strategic partnership with Zocks, an AI assistant built specifically for financial advisors, expanding its advisor services ecosystem of partners with a resource intended to help firms reduce administrative burdens, strengthen client engagement, and scale more efficiently.
Zocks helps automate meeting preparation, meeting notes, client follow-up, CRM and planning updates, client onboarding, forms, and client intelligence workflows. The platform is designed to help advisors spend less time on administrative work and more time delivering personalized service and advice to clients.
SEI’s advisor services ecosystem is designed to help advisors solve common business challenges by providing access to third-party service providers, discounted pricing, and resources that support operational efficiency, practice management, and client experience. The addition of Zocks builds on SEI’s commitment to helping advisors more effectively deploy their capital, including time, talent, and technology, so they can focus on the client relationships that drive long-term growth.
Zocks
VestGen Wealth Partners, LLC (VestGen), the wealth management firm revolutionizing the industry by solving for advisor succession while providing dedicated client service across generations, announced today it has expanded its partnership with Zocks, the privacy-first AI platform for financial advisors. In addition to using Zocks’ AI tools to automate administrative and operational tasks, VestGen advisors can now leverage the tools within the firm’s larger ecosystem to drive AI-enabled organic growth.
Over the past year, VestGen advisors have leveraged Zocks to build efficiencies, increase organic growth and enhance the client experience. The current set of AI tools captures meeting notes and structures client data while integrating directly with Salesforce, eMoney and Orion, creating a more seamless advisor workflow and improving data consistency across VestGen’s systems. The expansion of the relationship extends the firm’s unique organic growth program to further automate key tasks and provide high-quality, data-informed insights regarding potential clients and growth opportunities for current VestGen clients.
Zocks’ AI Assistant for financial advisors saves them more than 10 hours a week by automating various administrative tasks, drafting tailored client emails, processing documents and more. With powerful integrations and enterprise-ready controls, Zocks turns client conversations into structured, accurate data and insights. The platform also provides management with firm-wide visibility into client intelligence to help identify trends, spot bottlenecks, and scale best practices.
