The Fintech 5 with Ashlyn Lackey — Director, Emerging Technology & Innovation Strategy at Prudential Financial

The Fintech 5 is a series of blog posts consisting of questions and answers designed to help you get to know the people in the Fintech Sandbox community.

Ashlyn Lackey is a Director on the Emerging Technology team at Prudential Financial. In this role, she works with business units to identify compelling technologies and startups for potential partnership.

Ashlyn is a mentor for the Global Insurance Accelerator and in the mentor pool for RevTech Labs, two of our accelerator partners. She has also participated at Mass Fintech Hub events as a speaker on the future of insurance innovation. Ashlyn was previously named to Innovate Finance’s Women in Fintech Powerlist for her involvement in the fintech ecosystem.

#1. Ashlyn, what fintech problem has your attention right now?

One fintech problem that has my attention is something I’m calling ‘The Widow’s Windfall,’ where women, who typically outlive their partners, inherit, and manage significant wealth before it moves to the next generation. Despite this, the wealth management industry remains heavily male-dominated, with few tailored strategies for advising and retaining female clients. I’m particularly interested in fintech solutions that address this gap — whether through financial planning tools, education, or advisory models that better support women navigating wealth transitions.

#2. What Trends in Fintech are you most excited about? 

There is one technological and one structural trend in fintech that I’m excited about.

First, agentic AI for hyper-personalization, which holds incredible potential for large financial institutions (FIs). As AI increasingly takes on customer-facing roles, these institutions are at a crossroads: How do you automate everything for scale while still maintaining that deeply personal, human touch that customers value? In industries like insurance, where companies have historically prided themselves on close relationships — whether sitting at kitchen tables or hand-delivering life insurance payouts — there’s a challenge in preserving that ethos. I’m excited to see how AI can evolve to embody a company’s personality, making interactions feel personal and empathetic, while automating large volumes of customer engagement without sacrificing warmth or trust.

The structural shift I’m excited about is the growing collaboration between governments, financial institutions, and fintechs. It’s helping to standardize regulations and create better infrastructure across the board. States like Utah and New Jersey are great examples of this in action — Utah’s fintech initiatives have made huge strides in creating a supportive environment for growth, and New Jersey is doing its part with the development of programs like those at Stevens Institute of Technology. On top of that, the rise of academic programs focused on fintech over the last decade has built a stronger talent pipeline and fostered more innovation between the public and private sectors.

#3. What are some of the biggest learnings from your career journey in fintech and/or entrepreneurship?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my career — whether in fintech or entrepreneurship — is that the only opportunities are the ones you make. It’s easy to sit back and wait for the right moment or for things to fall into place, but I’ve found that the real breakthroughs happen when you go out and create your own opportunities. Whether it’s making connections, spotting market gaps, or just pushing through challenges, success really comes down to taking action, even when the path ahead isn’t obvious.

#4. What fintech founder / company are you keeping on eye on right now/think is working on something especially innovative?

Instead of zeroing in on a particular fintech founder or company, I’m more interested in how financial institutions (FIs) are thinking about spinning out innovative products or business units. In the tech world, it’s common for companies to spin out successful ventures — like Confluent, which spun out of LinkedIn in 2014 to commercialize Apache Kafka, or Microsoft spinning out cybersecurity software firm Rubrik. What I find intriguing in fintech is the potential for FIs to do something similar. With their deep data, strong product backgrounds, and solid understanding of regulation, FIs have a unique advantage when it comes to building startups. It’ll be exciting to see how they use those assets to spin off new, innovative businesses that can stand on their own while still tapping into the rich resources of the parent organization.

#5. Hot take! What are your thoughts on AI in the industry? Are we about to see a major transformation? Is fintech the key to unlocking AI at scale for financial services? Overrated or underestimated? What are the biggest areas ready to be changed by AI in finance? What problems need to be solved? What’s here to stay vs passing trend? We want to hear your thoughts!

Right now, there’s a lot of tentative excitement around AI. A few months ago, Money 2020 and Acrew Capital put out a report that said 76% of financial services firms have announced some sort of AI initiative — and that is just what they are willing to publicly share. Leaders are now asking what the ROI of these projects have been. The true value of AI in finance isn’t just about fancy interactions — t’s about improving efficiency, enabling seamless customer experiences, and solving complex problems like data privacy and bias detection. While there will be passing trends, AI’s core potential lies in making financial services more effective and equitable for everyone.

Bonus question! What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read recently?

“The Unexpected Spy” by Tracy Walder.

# # #