Welcome to Unlocking Business Value with Generative AI: Real-World Lessons from Banking and Beyond
Date: 15th May 2025
Location: People's Post Code Loterry Office, Edinburgh
Unlocking Business Value with Generative AI: Real-World Lessons from Banking and Beyond
Join us for an evening of insights from two industry leaders at the forefront of applied AI innovation.
We’ll explore how major institutions are building robust, scalable AI platforms and how businesses of all sizes can unlock the real commercial and customer value of Generative AI.
Learn practical lessons on balancing innovation with governance, when to use foundation models, and when to move towards more advanced AI architectures.
Can you please also register here (need to send details to the venue) - https://shorturl.at/CmzSy
Talk 1:
Building an AI Enablement Platform in a Highly Regulated EnvironmentSpeaker: Jaci Badenhorst, Product Owner and Lead of the AI Digital Enabler Platform, NatWest Group:
This talk will explore the approach NatWest took to design and implement the AI Digital Enabler Platform, focusing not just on cutting-edge technology, but on how it meets real business and human needs across the organisation.
Jaci will detail the process of taking the idea from concept to consensus, balancing innovation with governance, ethics, security, cost management, and risk control. He will highlight how the platform democratises access to GenAI capabilities while maintaining strong oversight, enabling local initiatives within a controlled and governed framework.
Talk 2:
Unlocking Customer Value with GenAI: Roberto Wolf, Principal of AI Innovation, Optima Partners:
Roberto will discuss material business and customer value of Gen-AI and practical ways to unlock this in a business setting. He will explore suitable scenarios to use foundation Large Language Models, and conversely, when it might be more appropriate to adopt a more complex architecture such as multi-agentic frameworks.
Speaker Bio:
Jaci Badenhorst - Product Owner and Lead of the AI Digital Enabler Platform, NatWest Group
Jaci Badenhorst leads the development of the AI Digital Enabler Platform at NatWest Group, driving responsible and scalable GenAI adoption across the bank.
With a focus on bridging advanced technology and business needs, Jaci specialises in delivering innovation within highly governed environments, ensuring that AI capabilities are deployed securely, ethically, and effectively at scale.
Roberto Wolf - Principal of AI Innovation, Optima Partners
A versatile data scientist with over 10 years’ experience in advanced ML across banking, insurance & music technology, Roberto heads the AI innovation hub at Optima Partners. Roberto’s track record includes delivery of one of UK’s first ML credit risk decisioning systems for a challenger bank, and a pioneering use of transformer-based technology for music emotion recognition. More lately, Roberto’s focus is on developing agentic AI systems in use cases such as call centre support and autonomous diagnostic engines.
Chair - Shannon McKechnie, Managing Director @ MBN Solutions
Agenda
6:00 PM – 6.30 PM: Networking (Drinks & Pizza)
6:30PM - 7:15 PM: Jaci Badenhorst, Product Owner and Lead of the AI Digital Enabler , Platform, NatWest Group (presentation and Q&A)
7.15 PM - 8.00 PM: Roberto Wolf, Principal of AI Innovation, Optima Partners
8.00 PM - 9.00 PM: Networking and Drinks
