Tell me about your journey – how did you get to where you are today?

I started off studying finance in France and London before moving to New York to start my first job. I was one of the few female capital markets traders at Standard Chartered in the early 2000s, working in the World Trade Centre. And during that time, I was also a survivor of 9/11.

Like a lot of New Yorkers, I was glad to be alive. We moved to a temporary office in New Jersey, and built a new trading room, where I worked on the treasury side. We worked hard to create something new as a team – our office was somewhere we felt comfortable and safe, and the spirit of the team was phenomenal. One year later, we were named the best team on Wall Street, and I was really proud to be part of a team that overcame some incredible challenges.

When I look back at that time, it was one of the hardest parts of my life, but one where I received a lot of support from family and friends. I’ve learned that the ability to adapt is key to survival, and it’s important never to feel afraid of change. I’ve also learned that it’s possible for anyone to rebuild themselves after a big crisis.

After 18 years in traditional finance, I moved to London and started working in wealth management. And a few years later, I became an entrepreneur and a disruptor in education. I wanted to make an impact on society and people, so I co-founded CFTE (the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship), a new type of university that uses online learning to teach professionals about technology in finance.

What were your goals in founding CFTE?

When I started to build CFTE, I spotted a big knowledge gap in the financial industry. Traditional finance professionals like me were performing really well at what they did, but had very little knowledge and understanding of technology. I couldn’t find anywhere that could help professionals gain the knowledge and skills needed, which is why I decided to build and launch CFTE.

Today, CFTE has learners in more than 130 countries, working with financial institutions, governments and startup universities to upskill people at scale. We have 260,000 alumni. And it’s not enough! There’s so much more that needs to be done.

What’s really important to me is building a more inclusive, human-centred financial ecosystem. I firmly believe that emerging technology and innovation are giving birth to a new era of finance that can positively impact billions of people around the world.

What do you see as the most promising applications of AI in finance?

For me, the most promising applications are those that enhance human potential: personalising services, improving decisions, preventing risk and empowering professionals to do much better and lead in the area of finance.

So what does that actually mean? In wealth management, it could include personalised advice and AI-powered financial planning; in retail banking it could mean lending offers based on real-time data. We have also seen some really good applications in treasury, particularly in areas like personalised financial services and fraud detection.

There are a lot of AI applications which can monitor transactions, detect patterns and provide real-time fraud alerts. Automation for compliance is also important. Another area we cannot ignore is the use of AI for operational efficiency, for example by automating the KYC process.

And given my background on the trading floor and in portfolio management, I will also mention the use of AI models for enhancing algorithm-based trading strategies.

What might be holding finance professionals back from adopting AI?

I think many professionals, particularly those in traditional roles, don’t fully understand how AI works, or how it can be applied to their specific roles. People may see AI as too complex, too technical, or even sometimes threatening.

People talk about upskilling, but my view is that we have moved away from that. It’s not about upskilling so much as achieving AI readiness, and understanding how AI can apply to your day-to-day role. To help with this, we’ve developed our AIQ assessment to help people understand where they are on their AI journeys.

Why is it important for women in particular to adopt AI skillsets?

The more we move into this AI world, the more we will need support for people who do not feel welcome – I don’t want to see a world where women feel threatened, but one where they find more opportunities for themselves.

To address this, I created Global Women in AI (GWAI), which is a community that enables women to lead the next wave of innovation through cutting edge research, transformative education and strategic partnership. It’s also intergenerational, because the Gen Z workers that are coming into the workforce need role models. I want to combine these elements to create a large ecosystem across the world, so that people can connect to one another.