Mission: Ops Possible, Ep. 3: the Future of Ops with AI at Swan

In our recent podcast episode, we invited Maxime de Juniac, Chief Service Officer at European fintech scale-up Swan. With Maxime, we dove deep into the evolving world of banking operations. As Swan provides Banking-as-a-Service through 150+ partners across Europe, they're pioneering approaches to operations that balance automation, AI, and human expertise. Here are the five main takeaways from our conversation:

1. The Operations Role is Evolving, Not Disappearing

Despite growing from 20 to 70 operations staff in 18 months, Swan's transaction volume increased eightfold. The future isn't about replacing humans but transforming their roles. As Maxime explains, analysts are evolving into "supervisors of AI agents" who handle quality control, make decisions on complex cases, and act as "Inspector Columbo" for challenging investigations. The shift is from data processing to expert investigation and system oversight.

2. Finding the Perfect Balance Between Customer Experience and Compliance

The biggest challenge fintech operations face is balancing customer satisfaction with regulatory compliance. Swan's approach is to use technology to gather information automatically without adding friction to the customer journey. They invest heavily in automation to download business registration documents, verify identities online, and connect disparate data points to assess customer risk - all while making the process smooth for legitimate customers.

3. AI Implementation Requires Safety Guardrails

Swan takes a cautious approach to AI implementation. Instead of aiming for 100% automation, they configure AI agents with clear instructions: "If you have a single doubt, escalate to an analyst." By setting AI parameters to a "very low temperature," they minimize hallucinations but accept that the AI will sometimes respond with "I don't know" - requiring human intervention. This safety-first approach ensures compliance while gradually increasing automation rates from 20% to eventually 50-60%.

4. Operations Teams Can Become Self-Sufficient with the Right Tools

One of the most striking insights was how Swan's operations team achieves autonomy through three core tools: Zendesk for customer service, Forest Admin as a flexible back office, and no-code workflow management tools. This tech stack allows ops teams to create, automate and improve processes without constantly requesting help from product and development teams. Maxime believes AI will take this autonomy even further, allowing any ops team member to use natural language prompting to build process improvements.

5. The Future Ops Professional Needs Mindset Over Technical Skills

When hiring, Swan doesn't look for specific technical skills but rather for mindset: curiosity, business sense, and enthusiasm for working alongside technology. As Maxime puts it: "They don't need to have engineering skills... what really makes a difference is that they should have business sense and customer love skills." The successful ops professional of tomorrow will combine domain expertise with openness to AI tools that are increasingly accessible to non-technical users.

What's clear from our conversation with Maxime isn't just that fintech operations are changing – it's that they're becoming more fascinating. In this AI-powered future, the mundane gets automated away while human talent focuses on what we do best: making nuanced judgments, solving mysteries, and building trust. Swan isn't just scaling operations; they're reimagining what operations teams can be in the fintech world.

Ready to dive deeper? Listen to the full episode with Maxime de Juniac on Spotify or watch the video version on YouTube. Get inspired about what your operations team could become!