The video explores the dynamic intersection of fintech, e-commerce, and artificial intelligence (AI) and their influence on current and future industries. Key speakers from Revolut, Alibaba, and Naspers discuss the transformative forces reshaping the financial services sector and the global e-commerce landscape, emphasizing AI's role in fostering innovation and efficiency. Francesca from Revolut highlights the shift in banking and the new digital economy, while Michelle from Alibaba elaborates on AI's game-changing impact on global trade and supporting small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Putty from Naspers shares insights into AI deployment in emerging markets and its utilization within various business models at Naspers, illustrating AI's critical role in numerous sectors, particularly in food delivery services.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. intersection [ˌɪntərˈsɛkʃən] - (noun) - The point or place where two or more things come together. - Synonyms: (crossing, juncture, junction)

One of the big themes of everything that you've heard today is about the, I would say the intersection of challenge, opportunity, risk, risk management, people trying or pretending to predict the future or avoiding predicting the future.

2. dynamic [daɪˈnæmɪk] - (noun / adjective) - A force that stimulates change or progress; also used to describe something characterized by constant change or activity. - Synonyms: (forceful, vigorous, lively)

And we're going to talk to you today a little bit about how these twin dynamics, as it were, what's happening in financial technology and innovation and what's happening in artificial intelligence is really shaping a lot of the industries and assets that some of you here are familiar with and some you will be learning about for the first time.

3. seismic [ˈsaɪzmɪk] - (adjective) - Of enormous proportions or effect. - Synonyms: (momentous, monumental, earthshaking)

So we witnessed a seismic shift and we haven't even seen it all because we see with a new generation and I think right now the reality is very, very few banks are ready for that shift.

4. proactively [proʊˈæktɪvli] - (adverb) - Creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened. - Synonyms: (anticipatorily, preventively, preemptively)

Given the global nature of Alibaba in particular, like the roots in China, like how are you all thinking about this differently? Yeah, so AI is exactly what we have been talking about, you know, tremendously changing how we operate the businesses and with the capability of AI in terms of streamlining routine tasks and also proactively risk management in the E procurement services, for example, this is changing a lot of way of working business of all sizes is to operating in the B2B side

5. streamlining [ˈstriːmˌlaɪnɪŋ] - (verb / noun) - The act of making something more efficient and effective by simplifying or eliminating unnecessary steps. - Synonyms: (simplifying, modernizing, rationalizing)

On our side is mostly on internal, of internal streamlining of processes

6. reallocate [riˈæləˌkeɪt] - (verb) - To distribute resources or duties for a particular purpose again or in a different way. - Synonyms: (redistribute, reassign, redeploy)

At the same time, the same you can, you know, you can reallocate time to more high Quality tasks.

7. ethical [ˈɛθɪkəl] - (adjective) - Relating to moral principles or the branch of knowledge dealing with these. - Synonyms: (moral, principled, righteous)

But at the same time that is on the underlying assumption that with everything that we do that we are doing so from an ethical perspective.

8. conglomerate [kənˈɡlɒmərət] - (noun) - A large corporation composed of multiple smaller companies engaged in generally unrelated business activities. - Synonyms: (corporation, group, mixture)

And one of the ways that you all have built this is by being not just a conglomerate, but a multinational enterprise that operates in E commerce, in finance, in payments

9. anticipate [ænˈtɪsɪˌpeɪt] - (verb) - To expect or predict something to happen. - Synonyms: (predict, foresee, expect)

So I think that for me is all about the customer and how can we not only meet but even anticipate

10. deploy [dɪˈplɔɪ] - (verb) - Move (troops) into position for military action; (in technology) to bring into effective action. - Synonyms: (utilize, station, position)

So, you know, we had Robin from the CEO of Man Group say, you know, at Man Group they have these 650 technologists, they're using all of these different things, they're deploying them in different ways

How AI, Fintech Are Reshaping Global Finance

One of the big themes of everything that you've heard today is about the, I would say the intersection of challenge, opportunity, risk, risk management, people trying or pretending to predict the future or avoiding predicting the future. And it is a real pleasure to be joined by folks who I think are already kind of operating in the future. We have the future of finance, we have the future of E commerce, we have the future of fintech and E commerce at the same time. And we're going to talk to you today a little bit about how these twin dynamics, as it were, what's happening in financial technology and innovation and what's happening in artificial intelligence is really shaping a lot of the industries and assets that some of you here are familiar with and some you will be learning about for the first time.

So I'm going to start with you, Francesca. Okay. Yes. And I'm going to share a quick fact, which is that you are the UK CEO of a company that has just been established as being the most valuable startup in this country. So no pressure, but you know, Revolut is known to a lot of people for a lot of things. And as a person who mostly lives and works in the US I've always been, I suppose astonished, slash depressed by how much further behind kind of the US banking system is when it comes to things like payments, digital, mobile. And Revolut in a lot of ways is at the forefront of shaping how much further a lot of companies here in particular are. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to be a fintech in 2024, going into 2025? Yeah, no, very happy to. And it's a pleasure to be here. So thanks for organizing this great event. So I think being a fintech today is actually, I feel, it feels like a privilege to be honest, and it feels a massive privilege to be a Revolut because as you said, definitely is probably one of the very, very few companies that is leading the way for the future shipping the future in financial services. What it means for me is being Fintech today is probably, I would condense it to one thing which is realizing that bank is changing and this time it's changing for good. So there's no way back. Okay. And it feels like it's able, being able to kind of be here and leave a mark and actually shape what the future will look like is a massive privilege.

Now the reason why I say that is because I've been in banking a long time, all my life and before Revlon, traditional banking and clearly banking has evolved a lot, but it's fair to say for many years has been a little bit static. Today we are witnessing a lot of special alignment of stars where not only technology is available, it's available very low cost, but also the infrastructure is digital, is digitized, we have availability of digital data. Most importantly, consumers are ready, are ready for innovation. So when I have two kids that are teenagers, when I talk to them, they don't even know what a branch is for now. Seriously, they ask me because on the street you see branches like why do you go there? So we witnessed a seismic shift and we haven't even seen it all because we see with a new generation and I think right now the reality is very, very few banks are ready for that shift.

So the future in the generation will be just looking not even at the idea at the phone anymore. We will probably all voice in the future. And so being able to define what that proposition looks like is fantastic. So I think that for me is all about the customer and how can we not only meet but even anticipate. And that's how people would behave. And I think we really need to look at young generations in a way. And before I go to you, Michelle, I'm going to ask all of you a question which is when was the last time any of you wrote a check? Yeah, right. And when was the last time you bought something online? Some of you bought stuff online during the breaks, you can confess, you know, and I think that kind of, you know, really, you've heard a couple of people here today talk about the importance of like that mobile customer and the fact that you can do your banking, your shopping, your transactions on device.

Michelle, you are at Alibaba and which I would say is in that kind of universe of companies typically perceived as very American, the paypals, the ebay is, the Amazons that transformed what it meant to be doing online shopping. Originally B2B and now of course B2C. But in kind of the context of having always been an innovator, like, you know, your US IPO at the time was the largest ever recorded in the United States. So you all have this track record of showing what's possible in the future. And now you are trying to kind of reinvent what it means to integrate AI into an E commerce context. Like what is that like on a day to day perspective?

Yeah, definitely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very happy to be that chance to talk about how AI is going to shape the global e commerce landscape. Alibaba.com has been, you know, was the first platform that launched, you know, that shaped the Alibaba group that we are now today. Since day one we have been very laser focus of, you know, developing innovations, new technology to cater, you know, the businesses of all sizes and especially SMEs to tap into the global trade opportunities. So AI is definitely going to be one of the game changer, one of the transformative force that's going to reshape the global landscape, allowing more SMEs and entrepreneurs to be able to navigate in today's challenges with confidence. This is one of the exactly the vision that we have been leading since day one. And when we talk about the SMBs actually since last financial years have exactly more than 48 million of buyers using on our platform.

So we carry on these directions and helping, you know, SMEs to navigate and to develop the AI tools so that they can be able to overcome all the challenges that they have been facing. We know that European companies has been facing a lot of challenges these days about financial disturbance, rising costs, labor. Yeah. And it's really the key for them to be competitive and to be survival as well. And AI we definitely think is the key for them to overcome all these challenges. So when we come to what kind of tools that we are developing, we're going to look into how the global trade is a very complex process. What we have developing is to help them to navigate and to to simplify the process.

From day one when they need to look for overseas partners developing products or looking for resources to develop the global trade, this is where we come to develop the solutions. And essentially we are developing different tools and solutions so that they can be able to stay competitive and also to be more able to develop the global trade in the global industry. And facing all the challenges that the big companies, they have much more solution they can have and putty in South Africa. Nasper is where you're the South Africa CEO is the largest company by far on the South African Stock exchange. And one of the ways that you all have built this is by being not just a conglomerate, but a multinational enterprise that operates in E commerce, in finance, in payments. You all happen to own 29.01% of Tencent, possibly one of the most clever investments of all time.

You know, I think it was like $50 million or $30 million for 50%. Amazing ROI for process. So you have a unique vantage point when it comes to the intersection of some of these trends we're describing, but also a unique vantage point into markets. We haven't really discussed as much Today, you know, particularly whether you call it emerging markets or the global south, you folks have heard some allusions to, you know, the rise of fintech, disrupting payments in Latin America or Brazil. But what does that mean for your day to day, like in practice? Like, what are the trends that you're seeing and the opportunities?

Well, thank you very much and it's been a long journey for me to come here. It's a long flight, absolutely. But. But it's really great to be here with all of you. Thank you. So for us, certainly, AI is the way in which we are running our business. When we look at the use of, well, we are using copilots, we're using large language models, LLMs, we're using, you know, different products to be able to push our businesses forward. And so for instance, when I look at our food delivery business in Brazil ifood where we are doing, we have about 100 million orders per month. That's 1.2 billion orders per annum. It is only through the use of AI that we're able to push that type of business forward. Even if I look at any of our businesses, our food delivery business in India, Swiggy, which we actually just listed a couple of weeks ago, I think about a week or so ago, for $1.3 billion.

And then also when I look at our food delivery business in South Africa, all of these food delivery businesses are focused on the use of AI for them to be able to accelerate forward. When I look at our E commerce platforms, it is only with the use of AI. And so AI plays a critical role in our business to the extent that we've ensured that every single employee is using AI with respect to their own work. So it's not something that we just using only for our consumers, our customers, but we are also ensuring that our own employees are also using it as part of their roles as well. So it's very much a part of our lives as it's a part of every one of your lives as well. And the sooner you get used to it, the better. And certainly that's what we are finding in our business.

Well, what does that mean? Kind of specifically. So, you know, we had Robin from the CEO of Man Group say, you know, at Man Group they have these 650 technologists, they're using all of these different things, they're deploying them in different ways. But AI is not making investment decisions. So when you say, and this is kind of a question for all of you when you're talking about how day to day this is Changing business. You're also talking about how day to day this is changing jobs and rules. Right. So what are the things that are having to be different? What are you doing more of or less of and who are you hiring and what are the skills that you're looking for to make that actually true?

Yeah, I mean what we are finding is the fact that there's a lot of areas that you can, we're finding that you can cut out. So there's a lot of operational efficiency that's created in the business. And what we are also finding is the fact that there's a lot more opportunity for new roles to also be created which hadn't even been thought of. So the opportunities are immense. But at the same time that is on the underlying assumption that with everything that we do that we are doing so from an ethical perspective. So our use of AI is based on ethical principles. And so it is important that with everything that, that we are doing that we keep that in mind. But from that perspective we see this as a significant driver of our business.

Yeah, I mean, very similarly, I think the opportunities are very big. On our side is mostly on internal, of internal streamlining of processes. So effective efficiencies. Clearly there's a massive opportunity customer side, which is very, very exciting, to be honest. What's coming up there we have already tested right now the majority of our customer interactions are already managed by AI agent. And going forward we want to launch also a personal assistant, which is not far away. It's not the future. Right. It's going to happen.

But going back to the internal side and efficiency, I think it's probably less exciting sometimes. But for me it's actually very, very interesting what's happening because it's a shift. Is it any shift like in history? It's not just some jobs will probably not be there. Some jobs will evolve, but there will be new amazing opportunities coming up. And so clearly we do use AI already now for more the basic kind of task and processes for like even legal reviews, legal contract fraud detections. We can use AI and machine learning all the time. We've been using that for a very long time.

But also for regulatory mapping, which is probably something we have which is relevant and that's fantastic because instead of having a lot of people had to do a very kind of repetitive job, if you want, you can substitute that, but also you reduce a lot of product operational risk, which for us is very important. At the same time, the same you can, you know, you can reallocate time to more high Quality tasks. And you still need a lot of intelligence. You need more intelligence. And one thing I'm really fascinated about is when I think about the job market in the future. And I think if I was young today, what would I do? And I realized that probably having a minimum there are two new skills. Not new skills, but like newly important skill set which today are very important.

So everybody needs to be very familiar with data. With analytics and some coding I think is a new language. Because you'd be operating no matter what you do. You need to extract. Right. And I see a generation already are. But at the same time you need to creativity and even just ethics and just, you know, are really, really valuable. Because all of a sudden what really matters what makes the difference for. For anybody that contributes it's just the next value added step. And think what do I want to do with that?

So I think we are not even seeing for sure in financial services. I must say probably a little bit behind the industry we are hired. But because there are a lot of regulation with OP step by step. I think we have not even seen the change will take a while. But from what I can see if I project forward, it's going to really change with the industry and companies work and how people what skill set are relevant.

Actually, Michelle, one of the things that has been raised as a critique of a lot of AI is that both the user interfaces and the training sets are like largely in English. And that there are many more challenges dealing with languages outside of a US or British English kind of corpus. Given the global nature of Alibaba in particular, like the roots in China, like how are you all thinking about this differently?

Yeah, so AI is exactly what we have been talking about, you know, tremendously changing how we operate the businesses and with the capability of AI in terms of streamlining routine tasks and also proactively risk management in the E procurement services, for example, this is changing a lot of way of working business of all sizes is to operating in the B2B side. And it's very good question is because Alibaba we have the reach of over 200 countries around the world. And we are serving, you know, more than 48 million users around the world. They are from different countries, have different challenges. Our AI tools, what we develop is very laser focused to solve companies SMEs, especially the practical issues.

Communications is one thing. It's not only language but also cultural. How they can use AI to create more professional way of communicating with their customers so that we also have tools to help them not only Translate but also proposing how to communicate and engage conversation with their customers. Because AI tools is talking about not only finding the right partners that we have work a lot. We develop some AI solutions to have a multimodal search engine that can combine only text, but also visuals and videos. So visual and videos is no language barriers. So this is one of the way that we help companies to tackle all these cultural and international issues. And then in the other side is when we talk about the global trade.

We have accumulated more than 25 years of expertise in the global B2B commerce. So we provide AI tools that companies can leverage that and the AI tool would proactively propose the relevant attributes of products that they should look for so that make them more easy to find the right partners. And that will largely help them gain a lot of time to find the best partner. And then when it comes to a data driven selection of customers and this is something that is no border we leverage all the insight that we can provide information about the market that buyers and sellers from different regions in the country can benefit from it.

All of you have talked about this idea of assessing risks. And as we were walking on stage I heard folks from deepminding we worry about everything. The existential crisis of AI whose values are encoded in these things. Whether it's misinformation at scale or whatever that might be. What are the risks of the scenarios that you all are describing? What are the risks of having your AI look at a contract and be like seems good.

Well, there are great risk but I can serving and it's kind of not a mystery. They've been discussed a lot about right. I think for me thinking I keep thinking there is a fact which apparently now is uncontroversial which is in a few Years from now, 2050 I will be the most intelligent being on on the planet. There's no doubt Elon musk up at night as well by a factor of it is not even 10 right. So when you think about that this is the first time in history that's ever happened all of a sudden can be very scary. Right? So in the risk associated with that are a lot because all of a sudden we could lose control all of a sudden in the short term even we can delegate too much and lose a sense of reality. What's real, what's not real in the contrary is the contract done well or not. But if you project in the long term it could be even bigger risk than that. So it's about losing control. And so how do we put some boundaries how can we still make sure we are in control, we are in charge.

And I think, I don't think there is a solution yet, but there are probably two ways an issue explored in parallel. So one is the usual way of controls and boundaries. So now for example, which is quality assurance, limitation of the level of delegation. For example, if we now use AI for a contract or somebody should review it and of course a human should review it. A human should review it, right? In the short term, maybe we get to a point we will have another AI reviewing it. It's already happening, you know, in applications. But that needs to happen. And the other side is and will be more and more is headaches because as the model gets very advanced, you need to ingrain the rules or behavior in the model itself. And that's why I think there is a lot of not only discussion but study now about how can you make it happen.

Right. I think that's the main risk. How do you maintain control but without leveraging the power of AI? And it will fascinating in the next few years to see what kind of solutions come in place and putty in terms of the deployment of digital solutions, in terms of people using their phones for all of these things. One of the realities I'm thinking about the Apple context. To use AI on an iPhone, you have to have the very latest, most expensive version of what is already a very expensive smartphone. All of you operating in context where not all of your customers might have the very latest, most expensive versions of things, how are you including the hundreds of millions of people who don't have Access to spend $1200 on a device to take advantage of some of the technology that we're talking about, I think it's very dependent on the community that you're operating in.

And what we found, I think certainly when you look at the African continent with products such as M Pesa, which is a product that provides access to financial services to people on the African continent, it works on the most basic of mobile phones. And so anybody through the use of mobile telephony can be able to transfer capital or whatever the case is. And in that case, actually it just shows the extent to which fintech at its most basic level has been able to actually, you know, hit through many, many levels of industry that were actually not even there because the financial industry has not been very robust in many countries on the African continent. And so mobile money has ensured that you can leapfrog that. But, you know, so from that perspective, you can use the most basic phones for some of the Most basic products that you can make available.

Because in terms of sufficient sophistication, the level of sophistication in terms of technology is not the same everywhere certainly where we operate or data access. Data access, absolutely, absolutely. So, you know, so we found it to still we're able to use it as it's applicable across the African continent. In South Africa, where mobile telephony is very high and you have access to a lot of more sophisticated phones there, you're able to make access to a number of products with the use of AI to consumers that are using, whether it's our E commerce platform or they're using any of our platforms, our payments platforms, our classifieds platforms to access our products.

Michelle, when you've talked a lot about focusing on software solving the needs of your SMPs entrepreneurs, what has been like the weirdest problem that they have had in trying to adapt to all of these many changes that seem to be happening at light speed? Yeah, definitely. When we talk about SMBs, sometimes we're talking about company with less than 10 people already entrepreneurs, they are multitasking. I think one of the challenges for us is first to develop technologies and innovations and AI solutions. I mean there's a targeting for what they need and that's why we have been working for over 25 years and we're very happy to have been, you know, supporting SMBs to develop, you know, in the global trade, making them accessible for them. And the second challenge would be adoption, I mean the technology adoption.

So we have been working a lot on that because I think there's a big gap between SMBs and big companies in terms of embracing new changes, embracing technology innovations and, but it's key for them for survival and to stay competitive because when they're facing the different challenges, it is just threatening their profitability and also their ability to cater in market demands. So when we do the SM Global SME Confidence Index, we're very happy to know that, you know, more than a quarter of the SMEs already embracing AI technology, but it's still a relatively low number. So we have been working a lot now to provide different types of solutions. It's not necessarily mobile based, actually it's very accessible for, for all the companies of different sizes.

It's web based, it's also on mobile. Actually Alibi is, has been, you know, moving this revolution of, you know, mobile based applications. All our platform is both available on mobile and also on desktop. And I think the challenge would be how we can help company on their digitalization journey and how we can support them to embrace the innovation. But I think for those who have already tested our solutions, who already use our platform, the benefits is very obvious because our technologies we are developing for both buyers and sellers, both of them can benefit from, you know, sellers they can benefit from, you know, the technologies can streamline, you know, their product postings. We know in the marketplace environment, being visible and being good reference on them on the, on the marketplace is very important.

You know, to stay competitive, they need to streamline all the process. And according to our data, like they can cut in half, you know, the time they need to post a product. And for buyers, you know, they can use our sourcing agent, you know, to combine visual tags and also AI proactive suggestions of new sellers. Actually, they are basically not replacing people in a company, but actually helping them to streamline some more routine tasks, help them to focus on more strategic initiative so they can spend more time to work on their brand, work on the new products to grow to that point. One of the things that people who are big fans of both AI and fintech and digital, they like to say, well, it saves time, so you can do other things.

I'm going to end with a question which is, if you had more time, what would you each be doing? So if you had more time, what would you each be doing with all the time you're saving with these solutions? I can tell you. All right, let me know, start. So, being from the global south, one of the biggest issues is to ensure that we can get as many young people to be as knowledgeable about the tech industry as possible. And so the biggest focus for me is to ensure that we can get as many young people to be digitally enabled so that they can be participants in this industry.

And so that is, and particularly given the fact that we have such a youthful dividend across the African continent, it makes sense that we need to ensure that these youth have access to digital skills and they can be real participants in the economy. This is a hard question to follow, but two minutes, go ahead. Well, I think if I have more time, I think I really want to show young people entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs with technology. I think it's possible that, you know, we don't need to be everywhere, but we can do global trade and we can innovate. We can also have time to spend with our family. And I think that's a good point of technology to make it more global, inclusive and everybody can enjoy growth and turn into global opportunities.

Well, very difficult to follow, but no, I think similarly, I think I would probably come out some of this new time on educate young people and show them the art of the possible and make sure they can kind of open up their minds for the future. Because I think sometimes it feels like we are not. You know, you learn a lot, but it takes a long time. And if you knew it since the beginning, since when you were young, you could really do a lot. So focusing young generation and training them on, you know, not only just technology, but also how to live life and kind of give back a little bit, that would be probably the main focus.

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