In this episode of Digitally Curious, host Andrew Grill, renowned futurist and author, sits down with Shannon Scott, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Product at Airwallex, one of the world’s fastest-growing FinTech innovators.

Key Topics Covered:

• Shannon’s Journey:
  From rural Victoria to leading global product strategy at Airwallex, Shannon shares how his background in computer science and mechatronic engineering shapes his approach to building next-generation financial products.
• Engineering Mindset in Product Leadership:
  Discover how thinking from first principles and understanding technology “under the hood” enables Airwallex to deliver seamless, global financial services and challenge industry assumptions.
• AI’s Transformative Role in Financial Services:
  Explore how AI is not just automating traditional tasks like fraud detection and compliance, but fundamentally transforming business workflows, onboarding, and financial operations — turning hours of manual work into minutes.
• Agentic AI Explained:
  Shannon demystifies agentic AI, describing how autonomous AI agents can handle complex, multi-step financial processes, from vendor onboarding to payment reconciliation, and what this means for both large and small businesses.
• Trust, Explainability & Regulation:
  The episode delves into the importance of maintaining trust and explainability in AI-driven finance, the role of human feedback, and why robust regulation gives financial services a head start in adopting AI responsibly.
• Data as a Strategic Asset:
  Learn why proprietary, high-quality data is the new competitive edge in the AI era, and how modular, adaptable data infrastructure is critical for future-proofing financial services.
• The Future of Decision-Making:
  Andrew and Shannon discuss the evolution of AI from an operational tool to a strategic decision partner, capable of suggesting best practices, optimising approval flows, and proactively managing risk.
• Actionable Insights:
  Shannon shares three practical steps for listeners to better understand and leverage agentic AI in finance:
  • Embrace podcasts and diverse learning sources
  • Experiment with new AI tools and services
  • Continuously question and seek better ways of working

Resources

Airwallex Website
Shannon on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

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@AndrewGrill on Twitter
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In this episode, Andrew Grill welcomes back Chris Juneau from SAP Concur to discuss the latest findings from the 2025 CFO Insights report, “Action for Growth.” The conversation explores the evolving role of CFOs, the growing impact of AI and automation in finance, and the introduction of new agentic AI capabilities within SAP Concur’s platform.

Key Topics Covered

• Evolution of CFO Mindset:
  The shift from “repositioning for growth” to “action for growth” reflects CFOs moving from reactive strategies to actively driving business expansion.
  
  
• Expanded Research Scope:
  This year’s report surveyed not only 350 CFOs but also 115 HR and 150 IT leaders, providing a more holistic understanding of business pressures and cross-functional collaboration.
  
  
• Top Challenges for CFOs in 2025:
  • Geopolitical tensions cited as the top external challenge by 37% of CFOs
  • Concern over worsening economic conditions has declined
  • A dramatic rise in manual processes as a pain point
• AI’s Transformational Role in Finance:
  • Adoption of generative AI is now mission-critical for managing data overload and driving efficiency.
  • AI is being used for forecasting, closing the books, fraud monitoring and creating new pricing models.
  • SAP Concur’s “Verify” tool now automatically audits 100% of expense reports, with 97% requiring no human intervention.
• Agentic AI & SAP Joule:
  • Introduction of “Joule,” SAP’s generative AI copilot, embedded across SAP applications.
  • Joule automates mundane tasks, pre-audits expense reports, and provides real-time policy compliance checks.
  • Joule acts as an agentic AI, orchestrating decisions and actions across multiple business processes, not just within finance.
• Integration and Real-Time Data:
  • SAP Concur now integrates with payment providers like MasterCard and American Express to capture real-time authorisation data, streamlining expense reporting and improving categorisation.
• Data Privacy & Security:
  • All financial data processed by Joule is contained within the customer’s environment and is not exposed to external AI sources.
  • Data is anonymised when used for model training, ensuring compliance with strict privacy standards.
• Customisation & Future-Proofing:
  • SAP’s Business Data Cloud enables organisations to unify and govern all SAP and third-party data, supporting custom AI queries across previously siloed data sets.

Resources & Further Reading

SAP Concur CFO Insights Report

SAP Concur Blog

Chris Juneau on LinkedIn

Upcoming Events
Catch Andrew Grill and Chris Juneau on stage at Fusion Exchange in London on June 12.

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious

What happens when we prioritise innovation over ethics in AI development? For the 100th episode of the Digitally Curious Podcast, Kerry Sheehan, a machine learning specialist with a fascinating journey from journalism to AI policy, explores this critical question as she shares powerful insights on responsible AI implementation.

Kerry takes us on a compelling exploration of AI guardrails, comparing them to bowling alley bumpers that prevent technologies from causing harm. Her work with the British Standards Institute has helped establish frameworks rooted in fairness, transparency, and human oversight – creating what she calls "shared language for responsible development" without stifling innovation.

The conversation reveals profound insights about diversity in AI development teams. "If the teams building AI systems don't represent those that the end results will serve, it's not ethical," Kerry asserts. She compares bias to bad seasoning that ruins an otherwise excellent recipe, highlighting how diverse perspectives throughout the development lifecycle are essential for creating fair, beneficial systems.

Kerry's expertise shines as she discusses emerging ethical challenges in AI, from foundation models to synthetic data and agentic systems. She advocates for guardrails that function as supportive scaffolding rather than restrictive handcuffs – principle-driven frameworks with room for context that allow developers to be agile while maintaining ethical boundaries.

What makes this episode particularly valuable are the actionable takeaways: audit your existing AI systems for fairness, develop clear governance frameworks you could confidently explain to others, add ethical reviews to project boards, and include people with diverse lived experiences in your design meetings. These practical steps can help organisations build AI systems that truly work for everyone, not just the privileged few.

This is an important conversation about making AI work for humanity rather than against it. Kerry's perspective will transform how you think about responsible technology implementation in your organisation.

More information
Kerry on LinkedIn

Thanks for listening to Digitally Curious. You can buy the book that showcases these episodes at curious.click/order

Your Host is Actionable Futurist® Andrew Grill

For more on Andrew - what he speaks about and recent talks, please visit ActionableFuturist.com

Andrew's Social Channels
Andrew on LinkedIn
@AndrewGrill on Twitter
@Andrew.Grill on Instagram
Keynote speeches here
Order Digitally Curious