Episode summary
How AI Will Transform Fintech In 2026
The a16z Show
· · Hosts: David Haber · Guests: Zach Perret
Summary
Fintech has moved through clear cycles: late-spring growth in 2018–2019, an explosive COVID-era boom, a hard reset in late 2022, and a gradual thaw since 2023. The guest argues that rates, capital availability, and investor enthusiasm changed the business model mix, especially for lending-heavy fintechs, while deposit products became more important as rates rose. He also says the category has matured from startups trying to create digital access into a broader financial-services layer that now includes embedded finance and software sold into large institutions.
Zach Perret says the next phase is less about basic access and more about making financial products smarter, more explainable, and more automated. He points to AI as a major shift in underwriting, credit scoring, and agentic money movement, but says the biggest immediate AI use case is fraud. The guest argues that financial fraud is now growing at 18% to 20% a year and that AI is currently helping criminals more than defenders.
Plaid’s current focus is on networked fraud detection and modern credit products. Zach Perret says Plaid’s Protect suite and Lens Score are designed to use cross-fintech data, bank data, and device data to evaluate trust and creditworthiness more logically. He frames 2026 as a year when fintech and AI will further converge, especially inside large financial institutions with lots of manual work to automate.
Key takeaways
- Zach Perret says fintech has returned to "spring" after the 2022 fintech winter, with growth and funding thawing but not yet back to the 2021 frenzy.
- The guest says rates reshaped fintech economics by shrinking lending margins and making deposits more important for companies like SoFi, LendingClub, and Robinhood.
- Zach Perret argues the next frontier is not access but better products: fraud prevention, explainable credit scoring, and AI-driven financial workflows.
- The guest says the biggest AI use case in financial services is fraud, and that financial fraud is growing at 18% to 20% a year.
- Zach Perret says Plaid’s Protect and Lens Score are major 2026 growth drivers, built from cross-network data to fight fraud and modernize credit.
Notable quotes
“the biggest use case for AI is fraudsters committing fraud against financial services companies”
“Financial fraud is growing at like like 18 to 20% a year uh which is insane”
“we've solved the access problem not completely not in every little niche but but for the most part”
“what we've done is we've taken traditional financial services and we've made it digital. We haven't necessarily made it excellent”
“the mouse is winning right now. I mean, the cat the cat will win long term, but the mouse is winning right now”
How the episode opens
2018 2019 in fintech was late spring. You get into 2020 and COVID and that was utter insanity of a of a story. — Like 25% of all venture dollars in that period went into fintech which is — Wow. 25%. — The stat after that is not a good stat which is um starting in like the second half of 2022 like basically 0% of venture dollars went into
Drought maybe.
Yeah. Yeah. Fintech winter was the second half of 2022.
Most of 23 and 24 things started to thaw a little bit and like now we're very much back in spring. It turns out the biggest use case for AI is fraudsters committing fraud against financial services companies. Financial fraud is growing at like like 18 to 20% a year uh which is insane and it's already a huge market.
I mean the cattle win long term, but the mouse is winning right now. Zach, David, uh, we did this podcast, I believe, seven years ago, and it's great to have the the gang back together. Thanks for joining.
Thank you for having us.
Great to be here. Of course, a lot has happened since the last conversation in our personal lives, and a lot has happened in in fintech more broadly. I was listening to the the episode that we did um the last time we spoke and we were talking about what has changed in fintech, you know, from early 2010s to to just before 2020.
And I'm curious if we could just sort of um check in or reflect back as to, you know, since the last time we spoke to to to now, what have been some of the major themes in in in fintech? C catch us uh catch us up if someone was in a coma after listening to the last episode and just woke up and said, "Hey, what's changed in in fintech?
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai in fintech
- fraud and underwriting
- venture capital cycle
- embedded finance
- deposits and consumer adoption
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Plaid
Watch the episode
Watch “How AI Will Transform Fintech In 2026” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The a16z Show, this episode and its artwork belong to Andreessen Horowitz. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
