What happened
Airwallex CEO Jack Zhang said AI cannot fully replace humans in finance because laws still require a person to sign off as auditor, and he is far more worried about cybersecurity.
Why it matters
Zhang's view suggests AI in finance will assist rather than replace people, keeping humans in the loop for sign-offs.
Summaries like this, every morning.
Airwallex, an Australian fintech unicorn that lets businesses make cross-border payments and manage finances in dozens of countries, is now morphing into an agentic finance company. Zhang described how it is using AI to build systems that help companies handle their finances. The company currently relies mainly on ChatGPT and Claude, but Zhang said it is also looking at developing proprietary models using open-weight solutions.
On replacing humans, Zhang pointed to the legal requirement for an auditor to sign off, saying agents can assist but the human cannot be completely removed from the loop. His greater concern is cybersecurity: with breaches in the news almost daily, Airwallex is using behavioral monitoring and hiring experts from the Australian Department of Defence and Palantir. Zhang said the company moves hundreds of billions of dollars today and remains constantly paranoid about its defenses.
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