C-Suite Perspectives On AI: Derek White Of Galileo Financial Technologies On Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans
An Interview With Kieran Powell
Never underestimate the need for human oversight: AI models are trained and refined based on human feedback, an essential role which takes careful thought and foresight.
As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance and integrate into various aspects of business, decision-makers at the highest levels face the complex task of determining where AI can be most effectively utilized and where the human touch remains irreplaceable. This series seeks to explore the nuanced decisions made by C-Suite executives regarding the implementation of AI in their operations. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Derek White.
Derek has been a pioneer in digital banking and financial technologies for more than two-decades, having helped launch the world’s first online bank, before selling it and helping numerous organizations modernize their systems and evolve their approaches to customer and client service. Prior to joining Galileo, Derek was vice president of Global Financial Services at Google Cloud, responsible for partnering with banks, insurance companies, fintechs and other financial services entities to redefine their core business units and transition to leading-edge, digital-first operations. Earlier in his career, he was vice chair and chief digital officer for U.S. Bank, global head of client solutions for BBVA and chief design and digital officer at Barclays. He also served as the technology ambassador for London, actively promoting the U.K. market as a fintech capital. Derek holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University. He lives in Utah with his wife and their four children.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
My entrepreneurial journey began early; I started my first company at about 11. My dad worked for me when I was 12 after he lost his job at BYU. Handing over my paycheck to my dad as the family’s only income was my first real interaction with money. Little did I know, this experience would lead me to a career in banking and technology.
Early in my career, I was involved with pioneering online banking innovations. I was part of the team that launched the first interstitial banner allowing users to apply for financial services online. We signed up around 60,000 accounts on the first day and built what many consider to be the first internet bank, Wingspan.
After that, I had great opportunities to revolutionize customer experiences at leading institutions like U.S. Bank, BBVA, and Barclays, and served as VP of Global Financial Services at Google Cloud. Now, I have the pleasure of leading the team at Galileo Financial Technologies. Galileo is the platform that has helped hundreds of big banks, brands, and fintechs modernize and scale. At Galileo, we have an unmatched vantage point into the changing digital behaviors and expectations that are reshaping the financial world.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, entirely new interactions between humans and money driven by technology and AI. Banks, corporate brands and fintechs are using Galileo’s financial technology platform to reinvent how people connect with their money and deliver exceptional digital-first financial experiences.
Our financial technology platform is the most comprehensive, fully integrated in the industry and what this allows us to deliver to clients is limitless. What we’re working on is putting this highly configurable platform in the hands of established companies to build the next generation of financial services. We build solutions that continue to reinvent how people connect with their money.
Thank you for that. Let’s now shift to the central focus of our discussion. In your experience, what have been the most challenging aspects of integrating AI into your business operations, and how have you balanced these with the need to preserve human-centric roles?
The greatest challenge — and perhaps the greatest opportunity — lies in harmonizing the efficiency of AI with the indispensability of human touch. I say it’s a challenge because it’s so important to get it right, and there is not a ‘set it and forget it’ approach. Trust and privacy are the cornerstones of financial services. Without careful training and, equally importantly, ongoing human management, AI tools can diminish the customer experience and erode trust.
To address this, we created our conversational AI engine, Cyberbank Konecta. This leading intelligent digital assistant (IDA) enables established brands to delight customers with personalized experiences at every stage of their journey, across all digital channels. Powered by deep learning models, its empathic AI engine learns from and reacts to customer sentiment in real-time, elevating customer experiences. Moreover, it’s driving ROI for our banking clients. In fact, Cyberbank Konecta has dramatically accelerated SoFi’s response times, boosting them by over 65% and significantly enhancing the overall member experience. This integration also autonomously resolves thousands of conversations, thus improving operational efficiency and member satisfaction.
Our model succeeds not only because it excels at analyzing and responding to human interactions but also because it knows when to involve human agents. This technology is continuously learning and evolving, with our team deeply engaged in ongoing innovation.
Can you share a specific instance where AI initially seemed like the optimal solution but ultimately proved less effective than human intervention? What did this experience teach you about the limitations of AI in your field?
I’m going to challenge the premise of your question a bit here, because we’re not approaching AI from the perspective of using it to completely replace human intervention — or an “either/or” scenario. Even early into the mass-market use cases for AI and large language models, the limitations and need for further development are already well documented. But the technology is evolving rapidly.
AI applications are only as good as the data that goes into them (see the “5 Cs of Data” later in the interview), and the human oversight and strategy used to guide and deploy them. Using AI to enhance, expand and scale best practices is where we’re seeing unprecedented success. Again, our conversational AI-powered intelligent digital assistant Cyberbank Konecta is a great example of this. It uses advanced natural language processing to analyze and interact in a more human-like way. It improves customer engagement and loyalty by tailoring each customer interaction in real-time, but it also infuses a human touch when needed.
As we move forward, these models will continue to improve and go well beyond current applications to a place where select customer interactions will be autonomous. As we progress, these models will evolve and greatly surpass their current uses, reaching a point where certain customer interactions become autonomous. This advancement will foster the optimal customer experience — one that empowers customers to feel completely in control and entirely liberated from the burden of decisions and tactical tasks. In this scenario, there will not be a human sitting behind each customer interaction, but there will be humans behind the scenes of the full-scale model, learning, adjusting and improving these AI-enabled solutions.
Could you describe a successful instance in your company where AI and human skills were synergistically combined to achieve a result that neither could have accomplished alone?
Our Payment Risk Platform (PRP) harnesses proprietary data to offer risk and fraud insights, which are tailored to create targeted fraud risk management recommendations unique to each client. By leveraging verifiable, proprietary data, our models are not only robust but also highly accurate. We employ expert human oversight to maximize the quality of our data and minimize bias.
For our PRP offering, our AI and machine learning models continuously evolve, as they are re-trained by expert teams. This allows us to provide real-time insights into ever-changing fraud patterns. While individual client data remains confidential, aggregated trend patterns across the entire Galileo platform are leveraged to enrich the ecosystem with insights to strengthen future fraud detection. As a result, we can craft spend profiles, define merchant risk profiles and establish adequate levels of risk appetite, all to empower our clients in proactively mitigating fraud risks.
Based on your experience and success, what are the “5 Things To Keep in Mind When Deciding Where to Use AI and Where to Rely Only on Humans, and Why?” How have these 5 things impacted your work or your career?
- A combination of AI and humans is the best approach. Let me start by reiterating that this is not an all-or-nothing approach. When we use AI, humans will also be involved. And as AI solutions mature, we will almost never rely “only” on humans.
- You must have good data: The old saying, “garbage in, garbage out,” rings true. AI is completely dependent on the quality of the data it receives. Employing the “5 Cs of data” ensures that AI is fed with high-quality information. We evaluate Big Data across the “5 Cs of data” management:
- CAPTURE, by collecting the data from various sources;
- CLEAN, to prepare the data for analysis;
- CACHE, keeping data readily available to significantly speeds up retrieval times;
- CALL, utilizing APIs to retrieve data; and
- CONNECT, integrating various data sources or systems to ensure that data flows seamlessly between processes or platforms
3 Never underestimate the need for human oversight: AI models are trained and refined based on human feedback, an essential role which takes careful thought and foresight.
4 . Track and maintain regulatory compliance: Regulating the use of AI is in its infancy and will continue to be an ever-changing consideration for all businesses. Financial services providers must understand how existing data privacy and consumer protection laws apply and ensure that any AI tools being used are not “black box” in terms of how they use and apply data, or interact with external stakeholders, especially customers. Teams must ensure their AI models are explainable to be accountable.
5 . Put in guardrails to promote ethical use: The application of AI must be tempered by ethical considerations, to enhance, rather than exploit or displace, humans. This is a complicated and nuanced area that requires careful planning and thought.
Looking towards the future, in which areas of your business do you foresee AI making the most significant impact, and conversely, in which areas do you believe a human touch will remain indispensable?
AI has already redefined data management and analysis, fraud detection and many other areas in financial services. The next — and most impactful — development is fully autonomous, hyper-personalized experiences that anticipate customers’ needs. By creating digital, highly intelligent and ultimately autonomous interactions, banks, fintechs and non-financial brands will be able to differentiate, grow market share and scale like never before.
But putting AI to its best and highest use will always require a team of bright people who drive the mission and the strategy of each brand. Humans alone offer not only the guardrails to guide AI but also the vision to serve the marketplace in a unique and sustainable way. The future of financial services lies not in choosing between technology and humanity but in their seamless integration for an elevated customer experience.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Stay connected with Galileo’s latest news on our blog, we share our latest insights, breakthroughs, and stories of leveraging technology to turn finance into a force for good. You are also welcome to connect with me personally on LinkedIn.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: Kieran Powell is the EVP of Channel V Media a New York City Public Relations agency with a global network of agency partners in over 30 countries. Kieran has advised more than 150 companies in the Technology, B2B, Retail and Financial sectors. Prior to taking over business operations at Channel V Media, Kieran held roles at Merrill Lynch, PwC and Ernst & Young. Get in touch with Kieran to discuss how marketing and public relations can be leveraged to achieve concrete business goals.
