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In this episode of Banker’s Bookshelf, Paolo Sironi sits with Eric So, Sloan Distinguished Professor of Global Economics and Behavioral Science, to discuss his new book “The Collision”. The conversation opens on a distinction most AI talk skips. The industry asks what the technology can do for us. So asks what it is doing to us: to the skills we still bother to build, to our tolerance for difficulty, to what we remember, and to the way we judge the world. He treats AI less as a tool upgrade than as an invasive form of intelligence already reshaping the people who use it. The frame is Steve Jobs’s 1980 line that a computer is a bicycle for the mind, the most efficient mover on the chart. So’s revision is blunt. In the age of AI, the bicycle has become a motorcycle. It offers speed and self-propulsion, and it multiplies the cost of a bad decision. The title is chosen for the same reason. “Adoption” and “shift” sound orderly. “Collision” names a rapid force that is changing human intelligence and machine intelligence at the same time. From the research, he draws four rules. Value the struggle: products sell the removal of friction, but struggle is how knowledge becomes yours. Students who outsource essays look strong at home and collapse in the exam room. Value who you are without AI: a polished deck you cannot defend is not your work, and the same failure shows up in a client pitch. Reinvest the surplus: history’s transformative tools did not merely speed the old task; they let people reach harder problems. Saved time spent scrolling is a wasted surplus. Make AI a cognitive trainer: personalized tutoring has long delivered a two-sigma learning gain, and AI can approximate it only if it walks you to the answer instead of handing it over. Banking sits in the middle of the argument. The sector’s instinct is to strip friction and automate cost. So’s warning is cognitive short-termism: fewer juniors, less mentoring, and a thinner bench of people who can still trace a problem when the model is wrong. Efficiency that deskills the institution is not a saving. It is a debt. The episode is a call to treat AI as a behavioral problem, not only a productivity one.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi welcomes Chris Skinner for an unconventional episode: not the presentation of a business manual, but a financial thriller. In Diary of a Ponzi Scheme — the first novel in Skinner’s Pulp Finction series — a broke operator launches a fund invested in stablecoins, crypto, and digital currencies, then pulls his wealthy circle into a scam that only works as long as new money keeps arriving. Skinner explains why he moved into fiction: to smuggle how finance works into a story, so readers learn tokenization, CBDCs, and crypto without being lectured. The conversation ranges across the wider series like fintech fundraising, a last branch in town, climate activism, and an AI attack that stops payments to return, again and again, to the same question: how do you scale trust?

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Ritavan, author of the new book The System Gambit—a rigorous guide to the one strategic move that most investors and operators never make. They say companies get disrupted because they miss the signals. This is technically true, but many are not missing the signals. They are reading them correctly and responding rationally, and the rational response is the trap. Every benchmark they hit is proof that they are excellent at a game whose rules have already changed. Nobody is going to tell them this. Their metrics cannot see it, and their board is scoring the old game. Finding it is your job, and it is worth doing properly. The move is a system crossing rather than a reallocation of resources, because the logic that wins in your current system is the same logic that blocks the position that compounds in the next one, and you cannot run both at once. This book conversation maps the eight system crossings, the sacrifice each one demands, and how to defend that sacrifice to people keeping score the old way.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Driss Temsamani, author of the new book The Agentic Bank—a practitioner’s roadmap that shows how finance is shifting from platforms to intelligence. Temsamani, a three-decade banking leader and advisor to central banks and regulators, explains how AI-powered agents are bringing autonomy, reasoning, and collaboration into the heart of modern institutions, creating the AI-native financial institution where humans and intelligent agents work side by side. Through the living example of Lisa, a corporate treasurer, he shows how real-time cash-flow forecasting, liquidity optimization, risk management, and compliance adaptation become possible today. The conversation moves from visionary insight to practical execution, covering the agentic transformation of liquidity, payments, risk, and client engagement, as well as the fusion of AI with blockchain for tokenization and modern market infrastructure. Join this episode to gain the keys to building, deploying, and governing agentic systems so that the institutions that act now will not merely survive the AI era—they will define it.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Pal Krogdahl, author of Rip Out the Core—an essential guide for anyone wrestling with the stubborn realities of banking core modernization. Despite massive investments, many institutions still face overruns, delays, and outcomes that leave them no stronger than before.  Sparked by a flooded kitchen that perfectly mirrored the chaos of real-world banking transformation programs, Pal’s book shifts the lens from pure technology to organization, showing that lasting change is impossible without adapting the way people work. He speaks to banking executives and transformation leaders tired of endless patching, converting hard-won industry experience into precise, actionable steps that finally deliver meaningful business value.  Join us as we unpack why core modernization so often fails, how organizational design must evolve alongside systems, and the practical path to progress that stops the cycle of frustration once and for all.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Prof. Dr. Ingird Vasiliu-Feltes, author of the new book The Art of Quantum: Statecraft, Sovereignty, Strategy—a timely strategic manifesto that reimagines classical principles of foresight and power (inspired by The Art of War) for the quantum age.  As demographic shifts concentrate workforce and economic power in emerging economies by 2030, and technology giants increasingly rival nation-states, the very meaning of sovereignty is being rewritten. Ingird makes a compelling dual case: nations must urgently build quantum sovereignty frameworks to safeguard security, economic stability, and strategic autonomy, while enterprises must engineer quantum resilience to stay competitive in a technology-dominated landscape. We unpack Ingird’s call for integrated quantum governance, orchestration across legal, regulatory, diplomatic, and cyber-ethical domains, and the practical steps required to create regenerative, quantum-resilient ecosystems. Listeners will gain frameworks for quantum literacy, leadership recalibration, and the high-stakes race that will define competitive advantage, national power, and enterprise survival in the decades ahead. Those who master the “art of quantum” will shape the future—join us as we examine why this is no longer optional.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Jean-Philippe Desbiolles author of the updated book AI Will Be What You Make of It (originally published in 2019). Desbiolles argues that AI’s impact on banking and society will ultimately be determined by human choices, not technology. He introduces the concept of a “co-era,” in which AI functions as a collaborative co-worker rather than a simple tool, requiring humans to develop “let-go” behaviors while staying in control.The discussion explores how banks can move beyond pilots by adopting a “cognitive factory” operating model to scale AI across business lines and processes. Desbiolles also examines the rise of agentic AI, which creates complex four-way relationships between customers, bankers, and their respective intelligent agents, fundamentally reshaping customer relationship management. Central to the conversation is the need to build trust through operational ethics frameworks, transparency, and responsible adoption to achieve real ROI. Desbiolles emphasizes that AI is driving a holistic transformation of organizations and society, and that success depends on placing humans at the center to create a virtuous cycle rather than a vicious one.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Selim Yazıci and Michael Salmony, authors of “Tokenization of Money; from fiat currencies to stable coins”. They deliver a comprehensive, multi-perspective analysis of tokenised money by assembling leading insights from central banks, commercial banks, fintechs, academics, regulators, platform builders and service providers across all major geographies in a rare combination of academic rigour and highly practical, immediately applicable guidance for financial professionals. Selim and Michael explore why a new form of money is needed and examines the economics of tokenisation from tokenised deposits and securities to both liquid and illiquid instruments, transforming not only payments but the broader asset economy. In the conversaton, they provide a precise comparison of the different types of tokenised money: CBDCs in all their forms, commercial bank deposit tokens, and stablecoins, together with their implications for monetary stability. Will  tokenised money displace traditional financial infrastructure? What are the geopolitical risks of digital monetary fragmentation? Have stablecoins strayed from their original decentralised principles? All key questions are discussed as wholesale tokenised corridors take shape, corporate treasurers adopt stablecoins for liquidity, and regulatory frameworks crystallise around the word.

In this episode, Paolo Sironi speaks with Dr. Balakrishnan Mahadevan (Balu), author of Designing Change: My Journey Through India’s Digital Payments Transformation. India’s digital payments have grown from under one billion transactions annually around 2010 to over 225 billion by March 2025—a more than 200-fold increase. Through his unique lens as a former banking technology leader, COO of NPCI during its critical scaling years, and World Bank advisor, Balu offers a rare insider’s account of how this transformation actually happened. The conversation explores the book’s core message: that payments innovation is rarely about a single breakthrough. Instead, it emerges through decades of institutional development, regulatory leadership, collaborative ecosystem building, and combinatorial innovation—integrating real-time rails, mobile interfaces, APIs, and interoperable frameworks. Balu discusses the long journey from early electronic systems to real-time networks like UPI, the critical role of institutional design, overcoming early skepticism, and lessons for both developing and developed markets. The discussion highlights broader implications for digital public infrastructure, financial inclusion, and the evolving role of banks. This episode provides deep, practitioner-led insights into building scalable, inclusive financial systems. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbalu

In this episode, author Dimitrios Salampasis joins host Paolo Sironi to introduce the Research Handbook on FinTech, a global scholarly effort to understand finance’s radical transformation. Two decades ago, finance meant traditional banks and centralised institutions. Today, digital payments, AI, blockchain, and central bank digital currencies are rewriting the rules. Dimitrios explains why this handbook arrives at the perfect moment: FinTech has matured from startup hype into core infrastructure, involving regulators, central banks, technology companies, and incumbents alike. It now shapes payments, digital assets, identity, trust, and inclusion worldwide. He reveals his motivation: to bridge the gap between rapid innovation and lagging academic theory by uniting leading scholars across finance, law, economics, and technology into one intellectual map. Editing the book felt like conducting an orchestra—bringing global experts together while keeping pace with fast-moving developments. Dimitrios highlights the surprising global reach of FinTech, the convergence of AI and blockchain, and the growing role of governments. Essential reading for researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and students seeking to understand—and shape—the future of digital finance. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimitriossalampasis

In this episode, author Daniel Trabucchi joins host Paolo Sironi to explore strategies for legacy companies to embrace platform business models amid dominance by tech-native giants. Drawing from his book The Digital Phoenix Effect, he outlines a pragmatic approach for traditional firms to foster innovation through platform thinking, preserving core strengths like customers, suppliers, data, and expertise. Unlike startup-focused literature, this conversation emphasizes internal transformation in established organizations, blending academic rigor with practical insights from Thinkers50-recognized experts. Ideal for leaders seeking sustainable, networked value creation without radical overhauls. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-trabucchi-a7891566 https://www.linkedin.com/in/buganza TWITTER @DanielTrabucchi @polimi

In this episode, Paolo Sironi dives into “Beyond Resilience: Patterns of Success in Fintech and Digital Transformation” with author Leda Glyptis. At the heart of the conversation are probing questions: Is success in fintech truly pattern-based? Can the journey of building new banks or digital services, whether from scratch or within established organizations, be predictable enough to replicate? And if patterns exist, are they within our reach to emulate? Drawing from candid interviews with leading fintech entrepreneurs and innovators, Leda uncovers the raw realities of creating groundbreaking ventures. This isn’t a glorified montage of founder grit set to triumphant anthems, nor a collection of polished vendor success stories that skim the surface. Instead, it’s an honest exploration of the messiness: the lessons learned, the inevitable mistakes, the constant course-corrections, and the profound personal and professional growth required. Leading fintech transformations demands more than sheer resilience: it’s about wielding control amid chaos, maintaining unwavering consistency and integrity, and standing firm, whether solo or with a team. Join us in this conversation,  perfect for entrepreneurs, innovators, and anyone navigating digital change. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/leda-glyptis-phd-272492 TWITTER https://twitter.com/LedaGlyptis

In this episode, Paolo Sironi interviews Aiden McCullen to explore his book UNDISRIPTABLE, a book that brings order to the chaos we are experiencing in personal and corporate lofe to the acceleration of the innovation life cycle. While we cannot see into the future, there are repeatable patterns we can understand learning from homo sapiens to CEOs, from hunters to the jelly fish as a way to master the infinite loop of reinvention. Aiden demystifies the principles of change through a blend of analogies, innovation frameworks and the challenges we face whenever we lead change at a personal or organizational level. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidanmccullen/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-innovation-show/ INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/the_innovation_show/ TWITTER https://x.com/AidanMcCullen https://x.com/TheInnoShow

In this episode, Paolo Sironi interviews April Rudin and Nick Rice to explore their new book Wealth Management with a Difference, an essential guide for advisors and firms navigating an era of unprecedented wealth transfer, where millennials, Gen Z, and women are poised to inherit trillions while technology revolutionizes financial services. From understanding demographic trends, like serving tech-savvy younger clients and empowered women, to mastering retirement planning, wealthtech tools, and digital marketing, April and Nick explore how to build deeper connections between wealth managers and clients and how to drive business efficiency. Whether you’re an advisor seeking to elevate client engagement or a firm leader aiming for sustainable growth, this conversation provides actionable frameworks to thrive amid disruption. LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilrudin/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-rice-028b1948/ INSTAGRAM @aprilrudin @brunswickgroup TWITTER @TheRudinGroup @BrunswickGroup

In this episode, Paolo Sironi interviews Ritavan to explore his book Data Impact: How legacy businesses Save, Leverage, Align, Simplify, Optimize, and Grow to WIN. The SLASOG framework is a methodology designed to empower non-digital native businesses in harnessing their unique strengths for scalable, data-driven growth. Drawing from first-principles and empirically validated strategies, they discuss actionable insights to align teams on value creation, streamline processes, and accelerate innovation. You will gain practical guidance on: avoiding expensive groupthink pitfalls to save costs and enhance decision-making; identifying and capitalizing on core strengths and high-impact opportunities; fostering alignment across people, processes, and goals for unified progress; simplifying operations to reduce complexity costs while boosting leveraged returns: optimizing learning through empirical evidence for measurable impact; and cultivating an abundance mindset to drive demand-focused expansion and overcome scarcity thinking. Paolo’s and Ritavan’s conversation demystifies data-driven transformation and equips leaders with tools for sustainable success. GUEST SOCIAL MEDIA https://slasog.substack.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/rritavan/ https://mavenmaverick.substack.com/