Interview: Going Beyond the AI Hype with PortX's CTO and CIO

Artificial intelligence is becoming both a competitive advantage and a compliance concern, making it easy to get lost in the buzzwords and hype. At PortX, we believe in cutting through the noise. AI isn’t just a shiny new feature—it’s a foundational tool we use to improve the way financial institutions build, deploy, and scale integration solutions. I recently sat down with Jon Fancey (CTO) and Kent Brown (Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer) to talk about how we’re applying AI internally, embedding it into our products, and helping customers benefit from its utility in a secure and transparent way. This authentic conversation delves into our thought processes, development strategies, and future direction.

Brad Allen (Interviewer): AI is dominating headlines across every industry. At PortX, we’re obviously doing a lot with it. But I want to start by taking a step back. How do you envision AI at a strategic level for our company?

Jon Fancey (CTO): AI isn’t just another trend for us. It’s a core competency. What excites me most is its ability to help us do hard things faster. The integration space is notoriously complex—think multi-rail payments, compliance-heavy data workflows, and constant regulatory change. AI gives us leverage. It enables us to move faster, simplify complexity, and deliver a radically more intuitive experience for our customers.

Kent Brown (CIO): We’re not waving our hands and saying “we’re an AI company, too”. The reality is more nuanced and, frankly, more interesting. We view AI as a force multiplier: it’s helping us internally, is embedded in some of our customer-facing products, and we’re even exploring ways to enable our customers to run AI in a manner that aligns with their regulatory and compliance requirements.

Brad: You both touched on something important—utility over hype. There’s a lot of noise in the market. How are we keeping our approach to AI grounded in authenticity?

Jon: We look at it in phases. Internally, AI is streamlining development, testing, and deployment. Externally, we’re embedding AI where it genuinely improves outcomes. One example of this is an AI-powered assistant concept we are developing for our Payment Manager platform. This tool will help users initiate and manage transactions via natural language. In Data Manager, we’re exploring ways to enable users to gain customer insights from the FI’s proprietary data using simple prompts—no SQL required. These are targeted, high-impact use cases.

Kent: There’s a temptation to go broad, especially when the underlying tech is so powerful. But we’re choosing to stay close to what we know and where we can offer the most value. That authenticity—focusing on real problems our customers face—is what sets us apart.

Brad: What about trust? AI in financial services always raises concerns about data privacy and control.

Jon: Absolutely. One of the biggest concerns we hear from our customers is around data privacy. We’ve had major financial institutions flat-out tell us they won’t work with vendors who train models on their data. That’s why we’ve made strict decisions about the platforms we use. We don’t train on customer data. We use secure, private environments with encryption at every stage. Our stance is clear: your data is your data.

Kent: And we’re exploring even more control for customers—letting them run AI entirely within their infrastructure, behind their firewall. Imagine asking a natural language question about your transaction data and getting a visualized response instantly, without that data ever leaving your environment. That’s the kind of control and empowerment we’re aiming for.

Brad: Can you share some examples of the outcomes customers are starting to see?

Kent: The PiXi Data Mapper we released alongside our AI brand announcement has already proven to be a game changer. The ability to conduct rapid iterative mapping has transformed what used to take weeks of manual data alignment into minutes. That alone significantly reduces project timelines, often cutting them by 40% or more. Then there’s the accuracy factor. PiXi’s AI-driven suggestions substantially reduce mapping errors, thereby increasing reliability. But perhaps most important is the shift in how teams work: they’re freed up to focus on higher-value tasks and strategic initiatives instead of getting bogged down in grunt work.

Brad: How do you strike a balance between innovation and caution in such a fast-paced space?

Jon: We don’t shoot ideas from the hip. We’re strategic. Each new feature or tool is evaluated against a pretty high bar for security, usefulness, and customer impact. Just because something is technically possible doesn’t mean it belongs in the platform. We want to build trust, not just features.

Kent: Predictability builds trust. We want customers to know what to expect: no surprises with their data, no black boxes. Thoughtful, deliberate progress is how we build long-term partnerships.

Brad: I know internally we’re using AI to help speed up our development cycles. What are some ways it’s made a difference?

Jon: Think about testing. It’s hard to write enough test cases manually to cover all the edge cases in a complex system. AI allows us to generate those tests at scale, which dramatically improves reliability. In areas such as code reviews or deployment checks, AI essentially acts as an additional set of eyes, catching things that might slip through due to time pressure. Our team estimates a 50% increase in code productivity, with AI accounting for approximately 35% of new code.

Kent: It’s also helping our developers be more creative. They can prototype faster, iterate more quickly, and spend more time solving interesting problems instead of wrestling with boilerplate.

Brad: What would you say to someone at a financial institution who’s curious about how PortX is using AI but skeptical about the risks?

Jon: I’d say let’s talk. We’re taking a different approach—one that’s rooted in security, transparency, and financial domain expertise. We’re not here to experiment on your data. We’re here to help you move faster without giving up control.

Kent: And the proof is in the results. If you want to see how AI can make your integration projects more efficient, reliable, and aligned with your business goals, we’re ready to show you, not with empty promises, but with actual outcomes.

Start your own dialog…

PortX is not simply experimenting with AI—we’re actively shaping its future in financial integration. From enabling natural language data exploration to intelligent payment routing and rapid schema mapping, we’ve already brought AI-powered capabilities to life across multiple core products. And we’re doing it all with a steadfast commitment to security, compliance, and customer control.

The pace of innovation will only accelerate. But with thoughtful strategy, strong governance, and a laser focus on real customer needs, PortX is uniquely positioned to help financial institutions navigate and thrive in this new AI-driven era.

If you’re ready to explore how AI can streamline your integration strategy and unlock new value for your organization, we’d love to start that conversation with you. Reach out to our team and let’s build it together.