Jack Zhang, co‑founder and CEO of Australian fintech unicorn Airwallex, said at the Future Proof conference that he does not expect artificial intelligence to fully replace humans in global finance, but he is deeply worried about cybersecurity threats.
Zhang described how Airwallex is deploying AI to build systems that help businesses manage cross‑border payments and corporate finances — effectively working toward an AI‑managed CFO function. The company currently relies mainly on ChatGPT and Claude, and Zhang said Airwallex is also exploring development of proprietary models using open‑weight solutions.
He argued that AI can assist auditors and other professionals but cannot remove the human from critical sign‑offs: “The laws still require you to have somebody sign off as auditor, and how the auditor does that sign‑off can be assisted by agents,” he said. “I don’t think we can completely get rid of the human in the loop.”
Zhang identified cybersecurity as his primary concern. With reports of breaches appearing almost daily, Airwallex is implementing measures such as behavioral monitoring and strengthening its security team by hiring experts from the Australian Department of Defence and Palantir, among others.
“We’re moving hundreds of billions of dollars today ... We’re constantly paranoid about how good our defense [is] against this type of threat,” Zhang said, underlining that the large volumes Airwallex handles make robust defenses a priority.
In short: Airwallex is leveraging AI to automate and augment financial operations, but company leadership views cyberthreats — not AI replacing humans — as the most immediate and significant risk, and is investing in both technology and personnel to mitigate that risk.
