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The three fintech predictions that will shape 2025
The real opportunity exists in combining the power of existing large language models with a company’s expertise, custom tools, and private data to supercharge their products and services.
After several breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology, you might think that all this incredible innovation has made its way into the hands of the people who need it most. But you'd be wrong.
More than 52 percent of the world’s population lack access to the financial services they need.
Being excluded from the legacy financial services industry means having to navigate their daily lives without access to savings, credit, bill payment tools or the ability to affordably transfer money.
I’m optimistic more than ever that 2025 will change that.
Credit reimagined
Most Americans don't think twice about using their credit card to buy groceries.
But what if you didn't—or couldn't—have access to one? That's an unfortunate reality for billions of people around the world because traditional institutions still rely on a system created nearly a half-century ago to determine creditworthiness.
While we’ve seen some progress in Kenya—from buy-now-pay-later services to pay-as-you-go features in superapps—we still have a long road ahead.
The entire system needs to be reimagined, and it needs to happen soon.
Something as simple as offering unsecured credit products, for example, can simultaneously increase credit access and help develop new underwriting models designed for the 21st century.
And I believe that this year we will see this evolution begin as companies leverage modern, real-time, and forward-looking data to determine someone’s creditworthiness.
The LLM leapfrog effect
It’s no secret that AI has taken fintech—and the world—by storm. But I think many are missing the big picture, especially when it comes to the power of large language models (LLMs).
LLMs have access to an incredible breadth of public knowledge but lack important context and non-public data to solve specific problems. The global majority is one example of a segment that isn’t well represented in public data.
The real opportunity exists in combining the power of existing LLMs with a company’s expertise, custom tools, and private data to supercharge their products and services.
And as we look ahead this year, I believe we’ll see more companies integrating LLMs into their tech stacks to improve their existing workflows and discover new and innovative ways to serve their customers.
The year of the stablecoin
Unlike crypto tokens, stablecoins are pegged 1:1 to a specific currency like the US dollar while still operating on blockchain rails.
One US dollar stablecoin, for example, aims to always be worth exactly one US dollar. And while that might not sound like a revolutionary concept on the surface, the implications are massive.
This technology enables near-instant transactions to occur 24/7, 365 days a year without geographic restrictions, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional financial institutions.
This eliminates the need for intermediaries like banks that charge high fees, take days to process a single transaction, and are only open during specific time windows during the week––a price the global majority can’t afford in time or money.
We’ve already seen strong momentum in the global adoption of stablecoins and I believe this year will mark a huge step forward in mainstream use of this technology, particularly in historically underserved markets.
The road ahead won’t be easy, but this work is incredibly important. There are trillions of dollars’ worth of economic power just sitting on the sidelines and I believe 2025 will be the year we unleash it.