The Action Layer Episode 1 | Maya Mikhailov, Founder & CEO of Savvi AI

What does it actually mean for a bank to own its AI and what happens if it doesn't? In this episode of The Action Layer, Atomic CEO Jordan Wright sits down with Maya Mikhailov, founder and CEO of Savvi AI, to talk about the gap between renting AI from vendors and building intelligence that actually belongs to your institution. Maya spent years leading AI at Synchrony Financial before founding Savvi, and her perspective cuts through the hype. Banks are sending proprietary customer data outside their walls every day and the institutions that don't start building their own intelligence capital now may find themselves paying to get it back later. They get into the real story behind the OpenAI-Plaid partnership, why chatbots aren't the answer, what a decade of dashboards got wrong, and what it actually looks like to turn AI predictions into action inside a regulated bank. In this episode: 00:01:32 — Why banks need to own their decisioning models, not rent them 00:04:02 — "It's important to own what makes you different" 00:05:53 — The AI hype problem and why overselling creates burned buyers 00:09:12 — Does AI embed banking, or does banking embed AI? 00:11:09 — The real threat behind the OpenAI-Plaid partnership 00:15:32 — Why dashboards gave banks the past but not the future 00:16:35 — Why chatbots aren't the answer and the Netflix model for invisible AI 00:18:15 — Operational efficiency vs. customer experience 00:21:19 — What the action layer actually looks like inside a bank 00:22:26 — Agentic AI in a regulated environment 00:27:03 — Real examples of AI closing the loop for consumers 00:35:03 — What great AI looks like when it's working About The Action Layer The Action Layer is a video interview series from Atomic exploring the space between fintech ideas and real-world outcomes. New episodes drop weekly. Subscribe so you don't miss the next one. Connect with Maya Mikhailov LinkedIn:   / mayam   Savvi AI: https://www.savviai.com/ Connect with Jordan Wright LinkedIn:   / wrightjordan   Atomic Website: https://atomic.financial/ LinkedIn:   / atomic-fi