AI, Fraud & Digital Identity: Dave Birch Previews FinTech Connect 2025

AI, Identity and Inclusion

In this pre-event episode of FinTech’s DEI Discussions, Nadia sits down with Dave Birch, for a conversation recorded ahead of FinTech Connect 2025, where Dave speaks on AI, fraud, digital identity, cryptography and the future of trust.

This episode focuses on the intersection of inclusion, digital identity, AI-driven fraud, and the changing demands of the financial technology industry. It is a timely dialogue for FinTech leaders, technologists and organisations navigating digital transformation. It is also deeply relevant to the work we do at Harrington Starr, supporting companies across the industry to secure the best FinTech talent and build inclusive teams.

Nadia opens by framing the purpose of the series: celebrating wins, challenging the industry to think differently, and walking the talk for inclusion across every corner of the financial technology landscape. Dave joins her for an exploration of how FinTech can create greater access, reduce barriers and rethink the systems that shape financial life.

Digital Identity: A Renewed Urgency Across Financial Technology

Dave begins by explaining that much of his current work falls into two key areas: digital identity and digital money. These are fields he has shaped for decades, but both have gained fresh momentum in light of new technological and political developments.

Digital identity is resurfacing as a central national discussion in the UK, with government leaders once again focusing on what a unified, modern identity framework might look like. Dave notes that this renewed attention coincides with an explosion of debates around artificial intelligence. AI systems now require identity structures of their own, methods of verifying what an AI is, what it is permitted to do, and how it should operate securely. This has pushed identity back to the forefront of FinTech strategy.

Privacy concerns, security challenges and the increasing digitisation of everyday services mean digital identity is no longer a theoretical concept; it is becoming one of the most urgent pillars of financial technology innovation. Organisations hiring for FinTech jobs now face increased demand for specialists who understand identity systems, data protection, cryptography and trust architectures.

For Dave, the convergence of political momentum, technological acceleration and consumer protection concerns has created a rare moment for strategic thinking. Digital identity is not simply a technical component of FinTech infrastructure; it is a gateway to inclusion, access and trust.

Digital Money and Payments Innovation: A Sector Moving Into Maturity

The second area of Dave’s work is digital money, where he has long been a respected voice. While sceptical about some narratives around cryptocurrency, Dave has consistently believed in the broader shift towards digital assets. Today, this belief is materialising in real-world developments such as stablecoins, tokenised assets and new forms of programmable money.

Traditional financial institutions are now seeking clarity and strategic direction on digital assets, and Dave continues to advise them on how to navigate this evolving landscape. For a FinTech recruitment business such as Harrington Starr, the rise of digital assets signals increasing need for payments engineers, blockchain developers, compliance specialists and digital currency architects across the financial technology jobs market.

Dave emphasises that organisations are now trying to understand not whether digital money is coming, but how they should adapt.

Reducing the Social Cost of Financial Infrastructure

When Nadia asks Dave what his overarching mission is in FinTech today, his answer is grounded in economic logic and social purpose. He aims to reduce the overall social cost of financial infrastructure. The current system is expensive, often inefficient, and creates barriers to entry that limit innovation and competition.

He argues that the financial ecosystem, payments, identity, back-office processes, compliance systems, costs too much to operate. This acts as both a drag on the wider economy and a substantial obstacle for new entrants in the FinTech sector. If digital identity were modernised, many of these barriers could be reduced or removed, making it easier for new FinTech startups to enter the market and diversify the landscape.

This has direct relevance to the FinTech hiring market: more competition breeds greater need for top technology talent, creating opportunities across engineering, product, data, payments, cybersecurity and risk.

What Inclusion Really Means in FinTech

Nadia’s recurring question on this podcast is what inclusion means right now. Dave’s answer challenges outdated assumptions. He argues that the industry has historically confused financial inclusion with banking inclusion. For years, the focus has been on the “unbanked,” implying that access to a bank account was the key challenge. Dave pushes back strongly on this idea.

For him, inclusion is about access to infrastructure, wallets, identity, digital tools, not bank accounts. He argues that bank accounts are not always the best or most accessible route for every individual. Instead, digital wallets, mobile-first solutions and secure identity frameworks can create more flexible, low-cost and inclusive pathways into financial ecosystems.

Beyond financial tools, inclusion also relates to identity access. Many people lack formal identity records or do not have control over their identity, limiting their access to services, employment, security and digital platforms. Improving identity systems can create a significant social benefit that goes far beyond traditional banking.

For companies hiring across FinTech, inclusion also shapes workplace expectations. As Harrington Starr helps organisations build diverse FinTech teams, conversations like this highlight how inclusion is tied not just to workforce representation but to the design of financial systems themselves.

Why Cash Is Not the Inclusion Hero Many Assume

Dave illustrates his thinking on inclusion with an example about cash. Some argue that cash is inclusive because it does not require technology or digital literacy. Dave reframes this: people who rely entirely on cash are often among the most excluded. Cash exposes individuals to theft, extortion, loss and an inability to shop online or access digital services. Cash-reliant individuals miss out on lower prices, rewards, interest-earning opportunities and credit-building mechanisms.

Digital tools can, when well-designed, be far more inclusive than cash, offering security, resilience and economic opportunity.

AI Fraud and Why Cryptography, Not AI, May Be the Real Solution

When asked about his topic at FinTech Connect 2025, Dave explains that he will be speaking about artificial intelligence and fraud. AI-generated scams are rising sharply, and many in the sector believe AI tools will need to combat them. Dave disagrees.

He argues that the solution is not to fight AI with more AI, but to finally adopt the cryptographic tools the industry has had for decades but failed to implement at scale.

He illustrates this through a striking real-world example: a woman in France who was scammed into sending $800,000 to someone who convinced her he was actor Brad Pitt. Through AI-generated photos and convincing messages, the scammer manipulated her trust. Dave uses this example not to mock victims but to highlight the sophistication of modern fraudsters. These crimes occur not because people lack intelligence, but because scammers exploit emotional and cognitive vulnerabilities.

A bot, Dave explains, would not evaluate whether a picture resembles Brad Pitt. It would simply check whether the digital signature is valid. Trust frameworks, public keys, certificates and verifiable credentials make deception much harder. A bot does not rely on visual interpretation or emotional persuasion. It checks the cryptographic proof.

This argument reinforces a growing trend in FinTech hiring: increasing demand for cybersecurity engineers, cryptographers, fraud specialists and AI-risk professionals. As AI fraud grows, businesses are seeking talent capable of building secure systems that protect users with automation, not education alone.

Bots, Behaviour and the Future of Financial Decision-Making

Dave develops this idea further, explaining that most people do not want to spend their lives optimising their financial decisions. Many would prefer to spend their evenings watching entertainment shows rather than analysing bank fees or selecting the right card for a transaction. The evidence is clear: around £300 billion currently sits in UK accounts earning no interest.

A bot would never allow that.

For Dave, bots could become essential tools in driving financial inclusion. They can manage routine choices, optimise savings, identify fraud, and make decisions based on logic rather than emotion. When combined with modern identity systems, bots can help individuals who might otherwise be excluded from financial services entirely.

Again, this has direct implications for the financial technology recruitment market. Companies are expanding their AI teams and seeking specialists in agentic systems, automation, intelligent decision-making and digital financial optimisation.

Cryptography as an Enabler of the Next Era of FinTech

Dave outlines the rich ecosystem of cryptographic technologies now available: zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encryption, cryptographic blinding and selective disclosure frameworks. These tools can enable stronger digital identity systems and more secure transactions.

The National Cyber Security Centre has expressed optimism around these technologies, seeing them as a way to improve trust and security across digital services. Dave believes the industry is finally ready to adopt them in meaningful ways.

For organisations hiring through Harrington Starr, this means expanding demand for talent with expertise in cryptography, security engineering, identity architecture and trust frameworks, skills increasingly central to FinTech jobs across the UK, Europe and the US.

Why Industry Events Matter for Innovation and Inclusion

As the podcast moves into its final section, Nadia asks why events like FinTech Connect remain so important. Dave explains that while talks and panels matter, much of the value comes from human connection. Events bring people together to exchange ideas, reconnect with colleagues, build relationships and discover unexpected insights. Conversation over coffee can be just as meaningful as a keynote session.

Events give people time to think, pause and engage with new ideas. They create the space required for innovation. For recruitment businesses supporting FinTech organisations, events also create opportunities to understand shifting talent needs, emerging skills and future hiring patterns.

Closing Thoughts: A Conversation Shaping the Future of Financial Technology

Nadia closes the episode by thanking Dave for the depth and clarity of his insights. The discussion ranges from digital identity and AI to inclusion, cryptography and the psychology of financial behaviour. Every topic connects back to a central truth: FinTech’s future depends not only on technological advancement but on building systems that work for everyone.

For Harrington Starr, these insights reinforce why the right people, and the right skills, are essential to driving progress. As the industry evolves, organisations will need talent capable of navigating digital identity transformation, securing payments infrastructure, combating AI-driven fraud and building inclusive financial systems for the next decade.