AI Applications in Industry (AIAI-2026)

an Open Finance Conference

September 24, 2026 • Federal Reserve Bank Plaza, Boston, MA •

Join Industry Leaders at the Premier Open Finance Event!

We are delighted to host the second annual Open Finance Conference as a community event during Boston FinTech Week. This conference, which is an industry-academia collaboration, is the premier conference on open finance. The theme of this year’s Open Finance Conference is AI Applications in Industry (AIAI-2026). Participants will explore how open standards and open-source technologies are driving innovation in AI and how these open technologies are being used by the industry leaders to speed innovation, future-proof their infrastructure, lower costs, and collaborate with industry partners.

This conference will bring together industry professionals to share experiences and best practices on the use of open technologies in industry and to discuss roadmaps for the structured and secure adoption of open technologies. Hosted alongside the AIAI-2026 at the same venue at the Federal Reserve Bank Plaza in Boston is the 2026 International Conference on Open Finance (ICOF 2026). At ICOF 2026 academic researchers will present the latest findings on new econometric tools, agentic AI, GenAI, blockchains, stablecoins, open technologies and their potential application to industry. All participants will be able to access any non-workshop sessions in AIAI-2026 and ICOF 2026. Industry professionals will be able to interact with academic researchers in a relaxed and collegial setting in break-out sessions or over meals.

Program

Start	Finish	Activity	Location	Presenter
8:45am	9:15am	Breakfast & Networking	AV Lounge
9:15am	9:30am	Opening Remarks	AV1
9:30am	10:15am	Panel Discussion – AI Discussions in the C-Suite	AV1	Steven Dorval – Founder & Managing Principal) at Dorval Advisory Group (Moderator)
				Matt Garrity – President & CEO of Florence Bank
				Elizabeth Graham COO at Massachusetts Life Sciences Center & MassChallenge Board Member
				Matthew McGinty – CEO of CareConnect
				Greg Woolf – Head of Innovation and AI at Brightstar Lottery
10:20am	10:35am	AI in healthcare: Learnings from Enterprise Transformation	AV1	Ying Guo – VP of AI Transformation at Qualified Health
10:40am	10:55am	AI in Pharma Research	AV1	Jun Yin, PhD – Associate Director of Translational Informatics at AstraZeneca
11:00am	11:15am	A Practitioner’s Guide to Investment Research with GenAI	AV1	Jesse Neumann, PhD – VP of Macro Strategy at Wolfe Research
11:20am	11:30am	Coffee Break	AV Lounge
10:30am	11:55am	Keynote Speech	AV1	Alex Baldenko, PhD – Head of Research & Development at MassMutual
12:00pm	12:35pm	Panel Discussion: AI Experts Share on Industry AI Adoption, Experiences & the Future	AV1	Mimoza Dimodugno, PhD – Lecturer in AI at Northeastern University (Moderator)
				Alex Baldenko, PhD– Head of Research & Development at MassMutual
				Ying Guo – VP of AI Transformation at Qualified Health
				Jesse Neumann, PhD – VP of Macro Strategy at Wolfe Research

12:35pm	12:50pm	Signal Collision in Open Finance: An Auditable Common-Trade Penalty for Learned Portfolios	AV1	Eric Benhamou, PhD – Head of Machine Learning at AI for Alpha
12:50pm	1:05pm	Beyond Automation: Designing the AI-Powered Finance Operating Model	AV1	Michelle Voyer – Managing Director on Client Advisory Services at CohnReznick
1:10pm	2:00pm	Lunch & Networking	AV Lounge
		Workshop 1 (Parallel Session)
9:30am	11:15am	Sequential Hypothesis Testing	AV3	Patrick Flaherty (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
11:20am	11:30am	Coffee Break	AV Lounge
12:00pm	1:05pm	Sequential Hypothesis Testing	AV3	Patrick Flaherty (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
		Workshop 2 (Parallel Session)
9:30am	11:15am	Causal Inference Networks in Financial Markets	AV4	Charles Mutigwe (Western New England University)
11:20am	11:30am	Coffee Break	AV Lounge
12:00pm	1:05pm	Causal Inference Networks in Financial Markets	AV4	Charles Mutigwe (Western New England University)

		Parallel Academic Tracks – Session 1a: Financial Technology
2:00pm	3:00pm	Fintech and Financial Inclusion Across 160 Countries	AV1	Elif Sisli Ciamarra (Professor of Finance & Chair, Stonehill College)
		Regulatory Barriers to Fintech Entry and Entrepreneurship	AV1	Hieu Tran (Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Massachusetts Boston)
		How Do Investors Value Technology in Cryptocurrency?	AV1	Wanyi Wang (Assistant Professor of Finance, Babson College)
		Parallel Academic Tracks – Session 1b: Forecasting
2:00pm	3:00pm	New Methods for Mixed-Frequency Modeling Using Machine Learning	AV3	Weijia Peng (Assistant Professor of Business Analytics, Sacred Heart University)
		Forecasting Banking Desert Risk Using Branch-Level and Merger Signals	AV3	Malavika Polanki (Graduate Researcher, Western New England University)
		Business-Aware Agentic Forecast Refinement for Enterprise Financial Planning	AV3	Hari Rajagopalan (System Architect, Stripe)
		Parallel Academic Tracks – Session 1c: Agentic AI
2:00pm	3:00pm	Can We Stop the Backtest Yet? Anytime-Valid Promotion Tests for Adaptive Financial Research Agents	AV4	Eric Benhamou (Head of Machine Learning, AI for Alpha)
2:00pm	3:00pm	Enhancing Web Agent with Memory-Augmented Action Simulation	AV4	Jiali Cheng (PhD Researcher, University of Massachusetts Lowell)
		Parallel Academic Tracks – Session 2a: Financial Intermediation: Theory and Empirics
3:15pm	4:15pm	Tokenized Debt	AV4	Ryuichiro Izumi (Associate Professor of Economics, Wesleyan University)
		Blocking the Credit Chain: Cryptocurrencies, Deposits, and Bank Loan Growth	AV4	Leili Pour Rostami (Assistant Professor of Finance, University of Massachusetts Boston)
		Open-Data Warning of Macro and Political Vulnerability Around the Globe	AV4	Madhu Thota (Graduate Researcher, Western New England University)
		Parallel Academic Tracks – Session 2b: Quantum Computing
3:15pm	4:15pm	A Review of NIST-Approved Post-Quantum Cryptographic Mechanisms	AV3	Maria Teigeiro (Cofounder & CTO, Real Time Taxes)
3:15pm	4:15pm	Quantum Computing, Quantum Security, and the Future of Intelligent Digital Systems	AV3 (Zoom)	Ashwini Kumar Rath (Founder & CEO, Batoi)
		WNE FinTech & AI Incubator: Startups Exhibition
		Startups from the WNE FinTech &AI Incubator will be showcasing their products with posters and live demos by company representatives.
9:00am	2:00pm	Startup Poster Presentations & Live Product Demos	AV Lounge	Startup Representatives

AI Applications in Industry (AIAI-2026)

an Open Finance Conference

Keynote Speaker

Featured Speakers

Industry Track Early Bird Registration

$199

Academic Track Early Bird Registration

$99