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This week on Sidecar Sync, Amith Nagarajan and Mallory Mejias explore Wells Fargo’s virtual assistant “Fargo” and how it stacks up against Klarna’s AI tool from a year ago. With 250 million fully automated interactions and measurable impact on customer engagement and bias reduction, Fargo offers a powerful case study in applied AI. Amith reflects on what’s now possible for associations, why a narrow pilot project is a smart first move, and how “human in the loop” isn’t just a safety net—it’s strategic. The duo also breaks down Microsoft’s new Phi-4 reasoning models, which pack PhD-level performance into incredibly compact packages that can run on your phone. If you're wondering where the AI trend line is heading, this one’s for you.

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🛠 AI Tools and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Fargo ➡ https://sites.wf.com/fargo/
Klarna AI Assistant ➡ https://www.klarna.com
Microsoft Phi-4 Reasoning Models ➡ https://huggingface.co/microsoft

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction
03:47 - Meet Fargo: Wells Fargo’s AI Assistant
05:59 - Comparing Fargo with Klarna’s Assistant
08:57 - The State of AI Agents in Associations
13:05 - Event Support: A Smart Use Case for AI
15:00 - Human-in-the-Loop: Not Optional, But Essential
23:44 - Private AI: Local vs. Cloud Deployment
26:46 - Microsoft’s Phi-4 Models: Small and Mighty
32:50 - Why Small Models are a Big Deal
43:54 - AI Trendlines and the Future for Associations

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Amith Nagarajan is the Chairman of Blue Cypress 🔗 https://BlueCypress.io, a family of purpose-driven companies and proud practitioners of Conscious Capitalism. The Blue Cypress companies focus on helping associations, non-profits, and other purpose-driven organizations achieve long-term success. Amith is also an active early-stage investor in B2B SaaS companies. He’s had the good fortune of nearly three decades of success as an entrepreneur and enjoys helping others in their journey.

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Mallory Mejias is the Manager at Sidecar, and she's passionate about creating opportunities for association professionals to learn, grow, and better serve their members using artificial intelligence. She enjoys blending creativity and innovation to produce fresh, meaningful content for the association space.

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