Friday, 29 August sees the Work In Fintech AI Summit arriving at Google King's cross for an immersive event and crash course where students can discover and learn about the future of AI and Fintech. With a hackathon, talks, mentoring sessions and more, it's the perfect opportunity for the leaders of tomorrow to get a glimpse of what the Fintech field has to offer.

Work In Fintech AI Summit: Why Now?

The Work In Fintech AI Summit on Friday, 29 August is designed to compress years of exposure into a single catalytic day at Google’s King’s Cross (Pancras Square) campus in London. Students will step into a dynamic environment where Fintech operators, artificial intelligence (AI ) practitioners and investors share what they know, then ask participants to build. Speakers include Narinder Patti, Head of Strategic Business - Fintech, Google, Christian Nentwich, PhD, Founder, Duco and Chris McConville, Head of KCX at Kepler Cheuvreux. The goal is simple and ambitious at once, to “bridge the gap between academia and real-world skills,” as Matthew Cheung, CEO at ipushpull and founder of Work in Fintech, puts it.

Cheung’s vantage point is practical. Having co-founded what would later become newsquawk, the information and news service for traders, he now leads ipushpull, a platform that digitizes and automates workflows across capital markets and has spent his career at the intersection of business and technology. That background shaped Work in Fintech’s core belief that talent is universal while opportunity often is not, and so the organization leans into inclusion and access by design in order to encourage those who might not enter finance to do so.

Cheung will also moderate a panel at the upcoming Finance Magnates London Summit on the topic “FX Tales: Stories from the Floor”. Veteran heads of sales will join the panel and share their keys to success, from talking to traders and managing CRM shenanigans to building lasting relationships.

From Talks to a Hackathon and Investor-Style Pitches

“The day starts with talks and panels from founders and CEOs which are focused on the skills young people need to thrive,” says Cheung. There is even a dedicated session on networking that is immediately put to the test during breaks and lunch. In the afternoon, participants form teams for a mentored hackathon, then pitch their solutions (which they’ve been working on for weeks) to a panel of “Dragons’ Den judges” made up of industry leaders, with prizes that can include mini-internships, event tickets, mentorships and more.

Cheung explains the arc of the day in practical terms: attendees are pushed out of their comfort zones in networking, public speaking, team dynamics under deadlines and applied AI skills. “Not only does the event give them direct exposure to the latest tech, but just as importantly, it gives them the confidence to engage and build relationships with founders, CEOs and industry leaders,” he says.

AI Tools: Lowering the Barrier to Building

A key design choice is that teams can ship without heavy coding backgrounds. As Cheung notes, because of today’s AI and no-code tools, “you do not need to be a coder to participate in our hackathons.” Participants use a mix of AI and product tools that can include Google AI Studio, Firebase Studio, Vertex AI, Glide, Figma, Canva and Coda, while mentors provide context and challenge teams to push further.

Inclusion as a Feature, Not a Slogan

Accessibility is core to the model. The selection process weighs enthusiasm, curiosity and their potential to benefit from the experience, not just grades, with outreach through universities and community organizations and an effort to remove financial or logistical barriers. The hackathon focus on underserved talent is intentional, says Cheung, because, among other factors, “diverse teams build better solutions” and the summit is about levelling the playing field so overlooked talent can prove itself.

Echoing this sense of inclusion, Cheung defines success as seeing “outsiders become active contributors,” building new connections and mentors, and ultimately securing “a job or internship” or the self-belief to pursue a career in Fintech or AI. He points to previous winners who progressed to pitch on stage at the Doers Summit in Athens, with the community even rallying together to create and fund a GoFundMe page to cover travel.

Judges score pitches on originality, use of tools, team collaboration, technical execution, relevance and clarity. An “investment-ready” student project shows problem-solution fit, a credible development path and a team that can execute. The 10-person panel includes Fintech founders, CEOs, supporters and senior tech leaders from sponsors.

Beyond the Day: Pathways That Stick

The summit is designed as a starting point. After the event, Work in Fintech facilitates mentorship pairings, introductions to hiring partners and, where possible, internships or extended project work with sponsors. The aim is to turn the momentum of build-and-pitch into tangible next steps. As Cheung frames it, the summit is a “launchpad, not a finish line.”

The Bigger Picture

The AI Summit’s mission is both practical and optimistic. It convenes a partner ecosystem of universities, community organizations, founders and corporate sponsors to provide platforms, mentors and more. The ambition is to turn curiosity into capability at scale so that the Fintech industry becomes stronger, more innovative and more representative, and so young people see a future they can own.

Register or learn more: https://lu.ma/m471f4vp.

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