Brewing curiosity in financial services the video series

[AdamN17]

The SAS Data and AI Impact Report has been so well received that we created not one but two YouTube series on it: Brewing Curiosity: Banking Unfiltered and Brewing Curiosity: Insurance Unfiltered. 

For anyone trying to pivot from “AI curiosity” to “AI capability” in 2026, these episodes are a concise and grounded starting point for the rest of the upcoming series.

So, pick your beverage, pick your industry, and enjoy these short 6- and 12-minute videos, respectively, but first here’s a quick overview of them.

Banking Unfiltered

Host Diana Rothfuss, Director, Global Industry Solutions - Financial Services interviews Julie Muckleroy, Global Banking Market Strategy Advisor.  The discussion stays focused on a single, timely premise that the biggest blocker to AI’s impact in banking is the foundation.

My three key takeaways:

• AI adoption is stalling for operational reasons, not just for strategic ones. The video connects stalled momentum to the realities of governance, risk, and delivery. The subtext is clear, experimentation was easy but operationalizing AI across lines of business is the hard part.
• Data trust is the real constraint. Weak lineage, inconsistent quality, fragmented systems and more access without greater clarity lead to slower onboarding, uneven risk decisions and difficulty proving ROI. It’s no longer just “garbage in, garbage out.” As we say at SAS, “garbage in, garbage scaled.”
• 2026 is the maturity pivot: from pilots to production. The discussion makes the case that banks don’t need hundreds of disconnected models instead they need governed, explainable decisions that can be defended and understood by the business unit. In other words, orchestration and accountability matter as much as algorithms.

 Brewing Curiosity: Banking Unfiltered episode 1

 

Insurance Unfiltered

Host Franklin Manchester, Global Insurance Market Strategy Advisor, is joined in studio by Chris Parrish, Senior Pre-Sales, Data Scientist, Financial Services and virtually by Thorsten Hein, Global Advisor for Product Innovation, Insurance.  The dialogue is about what is insurers’ biggest barrier to using AI safely and at scale.

My three key takeaways:

• AI adoption in insurance is being held back more by people than by tech.
  The conversation challenges the idea that insurers “can’t safely use AI” and reframes the real blockers as governance and culture. If leadership doesn’t set clear guardrails and expectations, even capable teams struggle to use AI responsibly at scale.
• “Trustworthy AI” isn’t an easy button; management owns the outcomes.
  AI doesn’t rest solely on data scientists; it sits with the management teams overseeing AI projects. Strong governance, transparency, and explainability have to be built into how decisions are made, documented, and reviewed.
• Pilots don’t scale unless workflows and silos change. Many AI initiatives prove a model can work, but fail to deliver business impact because they’re layered onto old, manual processes. Insurers need workflow redesign and cross-functional data flow, so AI insights arrive at the right moment embedded in underwriting, claims triage, and customer communications, not bolted on after the fact.

Brewing Curiosity: Insurance Unfiltered episode 1

 

Stay Curious and Connected for Future Episodes

For notification of future episodes in the Brewing Curiosity: Insurance Unfiltered series, subscribe to the SAS YouTube channel. If you haven’t checked out the SAS Data and AI Impact Report read the report in question and find relevant industry specific metrics.