Brian Thomas

Today's guest is Jesse Zurak.

The gap between AI ambition and AI reality in financial services is where Jesse Zurak works, building the data foundations, governance frameworks, and enterprise capabilities that make transformation durable, not just deployable.

As associate partner at Synthesis, Jesse works with global banks, insurers, and capital market firms, navigating the intersection of AI adoption, regulatory complexity, and operating model redesign.

Jesse's focus is on the hard problem

Not what AI can do, but how regulated institutions can deploy that scale without increasing risk, creating audit exposure or stalling under compliance pressure.

Well, good afternoon, Jessie.

Welcome to the show.

Awesome.

I really appreciate you making the time, my friend.

I know you're in New York or I guess Long Island is part of the state of New York, but you're in Long Island.

I'm in Kansas City.

I just really appreciate the effort that goes into this to schedule calendars and time zones.

So thank you again.

And Jesse, I'm jumping right into your first question.

You've spent over 17 years leading global transformation initiatives across 40 plus countries before joining Synthesis.

What experiences shaped your journey into AI data and enterprise transformation?

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And you've learned a lot in consulting.

We talked about how many years you've been doing this and clients do need an agent of change, which you'd found.