00:00Your revenues don't come from interchange fees directly, but of course a lot of your customers grapple with this.
00:05How are you thinking about the likelihood that this could be the future,
00:08that the payments world and processing world and interchange fees completely gets disrupted by AI?
00:13Well, it's a great question, and it's certainly a hot topic of the day.
00:18Pulling way out.
00:19I think if we think about FIS, we're the largest financial technology firm that serves financial services broadly.
00:25We see more money that goes across our entire money life cycle.
00:29We support like 12% of the world's economy uses our technology.
00:33So we have a great purview in terms of what's happening.
00:36I think the other thing to note that's important as we tackle this question is why we're so excited about
00:432026 and beyond and so optimistic.
00:46And I'll bring it back to AI, but financial services in itself is growth on.
00:51We are really seeing a generational moment here.
00:54So you think about the banking industry and where it sits today in terms of its ability to have less
01:00regulatory,
01:02be able to grow organically or inorganically, $50 billion worth of M&A transactions last year,
01:08be able to innovate inside the financial services industry with crypto and tokenized deposits.
01:13So financial services as a set, which payments is part of that, has a real growth on agenda.
01:18At the same time, there's a tectonic shift happening in technology, which is AI.
01:23So you put those two things together.
01:25And for me, it's a generational moment.
01:28So when I think about financial services, including payments, you put those two trends together.
01:32And it's pretty exciting, especially for FIS, because we serve that industry.
01:36Now, with respect to AI, which seems to be the topic of the day, and I certainly also read the
01:41report,
01:43look, I think what you're going to hear from many CEOs is that we are eternal optimists.
01:47So we believe in technology.
01:50And as CEO of a technology company, we think innovations in technology like this are really good.
01:56We also have survived them over many, many decades.
01:59And so when you think about it from an FIS standpoint, we process transactions and run technology for systems of
02:07record.
02:08They're multi-decade systems, and they're AI enablers.
02:12So we don't see a world where we're disrupted by AI.
02:15We actually see a world where AI is a strategic accelerant.
02:18And I think that's what you're going to hear from a lot of us that run technology across the financial
02:22services industry.
02:23What you need to have AI capabilities is a fantastic data and data moat and data strategy.
02:31And that's what we have.
02:33We have more data at FIS than anyone in the financial services industry.
02:37We have over a billion cardholder accounts on file.
02:40We process 73 billion transactions.
02:42We see over 900 million bank accounts on file.
02:45And so when we are talking to our customers about AI, it's about how do we help them use their
02:51data?
02:51How do we help them get to their data?
02:52How do we help them build AI agents on top of that data?
02:56So for us, we see it as an accelerant.
02:58I was thinking about this.
03:00When I read this Atrini piece, he obviously brings up crypto with his reference to Ether and Solana as maybe
03:08a payment rail with less friction.
03:12And you've seen this before, right, in your career.
03:14You were at Fifth Third dealing with payment processing then and at PwC before.
03:19So AI is just another – I mean, maybe it's generational, right?
03:24But you've seen generational shifts with Bitcoin in 2009 and with the Internet in the late 90s.
03:32So do you adopt those technologies and then use them to do a better job serving your clients?
03:38Or do you, you know, worry that they will put you out of business?
03:42Yeah, well, we know absolutely we have to adopt them, right?
03:45Our job in terms of payment capabilities, and you're exactly right, whether it's a check, ACH, wire, real-time payments,
03:52crypto, tokenized deposits, our job as the technology provider is to make those capabilities available to everyone of our financial
03:59institutions.
04:00So we have to make sure that we innovate so that they can provide those capabilities.
04:04If their client wants to use crypto, they need to be able to use crypto.
04:07If they want to use Circle, if they want to use a tokenized deposit, we have to have that capability.
04:11The great news is we have all – and the good news is we're not seeing any of the other
04:16things go away.
04:16It's an and, to your point.
04:18Right.
04:18It hasn't – we haven't seen ACH go away.
04:21We haven't seen branches go away.
04:23We haven't seen ATMs go away.
04:24It's an and.
04:25So for us, it's an and.
04:27Now, when you think about a technology company ourselves, the thing that I'm most focused on as a CEO is
04:33making sure that I enable my entire 55,000 people to be not only AI literate, but AI strength and
04:40strong.
04:40So we're investing four times in AI capabilities, both in terms of, Matt, like you talked about, to deliver to
04:46our customers the products, but also to make sure that our technologists are the best in the industry in terms
04:53of how to use this technology.
04:54It's like putting a computer on your desk.
04:56I talk to them all the time about – well, most of them don't even remember, but remember when you
05:00had a desk and you did paperwork, and then the next day you had a desk and you had a
05:04computer.
05:05No one taught you how to use it.
05:06You powered it on and figured it out.
05:08And so that's how we're thinking about it.
05:10We're making a lot of investment in our colleagues to make sure that we keep them upskilled and that they
05:15can actually be cutting front end as a technology.
05:18How are you thinking about that growth of your talent?
05:20Because there's one theory, you added more AI, less people.
05:23And the other one, which maybe is more interesting, if AI can do more and can produce more code, you
05:28need more people to oversee that code.
05:30How are you thinking about things like headcount as you add technology to what people are already doing at FIS?
05:35Yeah, it's a great question.
05:36We get it all the time.
05:37For me, it's most important as a technology company CEO, I need everyone in my company to be using the
05:44most cutting edge technology.
05:45Whether we're using it to deliver for our products or we're using it internally for ourselves, I put it in
05:51every single person's hands.
05:52Everybody has digital capabilities, digital aging capabilities.
05:56Now, to challenge it, and then we give a lot of learning.
05:59But you have to have a natural curiosity to want to do it.
06:01I talk a lot about my dad who lost his job in the 90s and didn't know how to work
06:08on a computer.
06:09I came into my career in the 90s and I had a computer.
06:12I never knew how to not work with a computer.
06:15He never knew how to work with a computer.
06:17So that's really where we are in terms of AI.
06:19You have to want to learn how to do it.
06:22And it's my job as a CEO to make sure that I put the tools in your hands and I
06:26encourage you to do it.
06:27And then it's really up to you to make sure that you embrace it.
06:30One of the things you need at FIS is obviously for consumers to keep powering this economy.
06:35For sure.
06:35Right?
06:36And, you know, never count the American consumer out is something that I've been hearing for 25 years.
06:40But the alarm, part of the alarm that Zitrini piece raised is that the white-collar jobs are the ones
06:48that are going to be lost now.
06:49They are the ones that power the bulk of the spending.
06:53How much do you worry about that?
06:55You've got to think about it.
06:56It's so big picture and it's so kind of nebulous.
06:58But it would be a concern, right, if the top 10 percent were reduced in terms of workforce.
07:08Yes and no.
07:09So you're absolutely right.
07:11So, first of all, I agree with you.
07:12I never count the U.S. consumer out.
07:15And, in fact, because of the large data that we see, not only are financial services and banks booming globally,
07:22but the consumer continues to remain healthy.
07:24I think you just talked about that on your previous piece.
07:26We're not seeing signs that a consumer is under stress or duress.
07:30So that's good.
07:32And I do think I agree.
07:33By the way, that bears repeating because you have a great viewpoint to judge this.
07:39You're not seeing signs that the consumer is under stress.
07:41No, we're not.
07:42The consumer remains healthy.
07:43Banks remain healthy.
07:45Financial services remains healthy and is growth on.
07:49I think that's real.
07:50And that is true globally.
07:51I think that's really important to reinforce.
07:54And it's also why we as FIS serving that sector feel so good about what's going to happen for our
08:00company.
08:01But also, I think it's important to know we aren't seeing any signs of that yet.
08:06So, in terms of, then, how to think about the workers, frankly, like myself, that are older and need to
08:14adopt new technologies.
08:15They're not older.
08:16Oh, thank you.
08:17Thank you so much.
08:20Look, I think it's, this is my point where I tell the story about my dad.
08:24And I talk, and by the way, everybody, tell everybody, it's a great ending.
08:28He retired.
08:29He couldn't figure out how to do save or save ads on the computer.
08:32But my mom could, and he was very happy.
08:35So, it's a happy story.
08:37But I do think it's incumbent, and I talk to my teams about it a lot.
08:41I'm not worried about the younger workers.
08:42My daughter's about to graduate and come into the workforce.
08:46She needs to get a job.
08:48She will know how to use AI, just like I figured out how to use a computer.
08:52It's really incumbent upon me as the CEO of the technology company to put that in everybody's hands.
08:58Do I worry about it?
09:00I, yes and no.
09:02But we need to make sure that we're giving everybody an equal opportunity to get after it.
09:07The Citron research story, as I told you, Amanda, before we came on, it was super depressing.
09:12And then I woke up the next morning, and I was, you know, again, going back to my optimistic point
09:17as a CEO.
09:17Markets, too.
09:18Yeah, it's too much to take.
09:20And so, I think we're all going to be just fine.
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