Innovation shouldn’t have to come at the cost of security. But with AI on the scene, leaders will need to carefully balance the risk and reward to get the most out of the technology without sabotaging their defenses in the process.
“I love my teams using AI,” says James Simcox, COO & CPO at Equals Money, in a new interview for our Executive Exchange series. “But it’s almost like the AI tools are designed to make you want to overshare with them.” In just a few clicks, employees can connect Slack, email, or other sensitive data sources to AI platforms — including unapproved ones.
To encourage productivity without sacrificing security, Simcox prioritizes enablement that is protected by regular education and clear guidelines. All employees are aware of what’s allowed and what isn’t. It’s also important to treat AI adoption with the same rigor as traditional software procurement, he says.
But there’s more at risk than just shadow AI. Account takeovers, always a concern in the financial services space, are becoming harder to detect as threat actors increasingly turn to AI to create more convincing, well-orchestrated scams.
“We see it all the time where people try to get into accounts because if they can get it, they don’t just walk away with data. They walk away with real money,” says Simcox. To protect customers, he advocates for a shift from relying solely on front-door security at login to a continuous, data-driven risk model that monitors the entire customer journey for high-risk or suspicious actions.
Watch the full video above to hear more from James Simcox on AI security frameworks, the risks of agentic payments, and the importance of identity security posture management (ISPM).
