Citi’s AI Avatar vs. the $650B FinTech wave it can’t outrun 🤖🌊; Crypto’s smartest money is now betting AI Agents need blockchain banks 🤖🏦
FinTech is Eating the World, 7 May
Hey Everyone,
Good morning & happy Thursday! Today we’re diving into banking giant Citi and its AI strategy (AI Avatar Citi Sky, Arc Platform, how it stacks against AI initiatives from other major banks, and why it might be impossible to outrun FinTech competitors + bonus deep dive into Revolut’s AI Model for Money & how Anthropic is building Wall Street’s AI operating system inside), and why crypto’s smartest VC money is now betting on AI & AI Agent Infra (what Paradigm & Haun Ventures’ recent funds tell us, and how founders & investors should be thinking about this + bonus dive into Anthropic that literally just told founders what AI products to build in 2026 & how I built an AI OS to run a startup with Claude). So let’s jump straight into the interesting stuff 🌶️
Citi’s AI Avatar vs. the $650 billion FinTech wave it can’t outrun 🤖🌊
The news 🗞️ Banking giant Citi C 0.00%↑ just put an AI advisor in a blue blazer on screen for its wealthiest clients. All while the bank’s Q1 2026 was its best quarter in a decade, with $24.6 billion in revenue, net income up 42%, and AI tools already saving 100,000 developer hours per week. Not too shabby!
If you look at the bigger picture, every major Wall Street bank is now pouring billions into AI, racing to automate everything from wealth advice to back-office compliance.
But here’s what the race ignores: the industry banks are defending against grew 3.5 times faster than banking last year.
Fintech revenue hit $650 billion in 2025 with only 4% penetration of the broader financial services market. Five fintechs are approaching $100B valuations. And for the first time, consumers in Europe trust digital banks more than traditional ones.
Yes, the banks are building impressive AI tools. But the question now is whether they’re building them fast enough to matter.
Let’s take a closer look and unpack this.
