ADS.finance founder says AI will commoditize money

Asfandyar Uppal, founder of ADS.finance, says artificial intelligence is turning financial services into a more standardized, lower-cost product and shifting competition toward trust, service and execution. He says the change is already reshaping lending, underwriting and customer experience across the industry.

Why it matters: - Uppal argues that AI will compress the cost gap between financial firms, making technology itself a weaker source of differentiation. - If his thesis holds, lenders and fintechs will compete less on automation and more on trust, reliability and customer relationships. - The shift could reshape how borrowers choose lenders and how financial firms build long-term advantage.

What happened: - Asfandyar Uppal, founder of ADS.finance, introduced a thesis he calls "The Commoditisation of Money." - He framed the idea as a structural shift in financial services as AI becomes standard across lending and related products. - The thesis builds on an earlier view from Uppal that sustainable private credit investing starts with downside protection rather than chasing higher yields. - Uppal presented the concept in New York on July 29, 2026.

The details: - The thesis says artificial intelligence is reducing the cost of delivering financial services across fraud detection, document verification, compliance, loan origination, credit assessment and customer service. - Uppal said money is a homogeneous product, meaning borrowers are still borrowing money even if the lender changes. - As operational costs fall, the competitive edge shifts away from efficiency and toward execution, speed, reliability and customer service. - Uppal said tasks that once required large back-office teams, including loan origination, document verification and parts of credit underwriting, are increasingly handled by AI-powered systems. - ADS.finance is using AI to help borrowers better understand their financial position, improve repayment strategies and identify more suitable lending solutions before they speak with lenders. - The company says the goal is to improve borrower information while keeping human judgment in the process where it matters most. - Uppal said customers are becoming better informed before contacting lenders, comparing products more easily and expecting faster decisions. - He said customers still value reliability and good service, especially when problems arise.

Between the lines: - The thesis is not that AI eliminates competition. It is that AI can make more firms look similar, which raises the value of softer advantages that are harder to automate. - In that view, financial firms that over-focus on cost cutting may face a harder fight for margins if their rivals can buy or build similar AI tools. - The emphasis on trust suggests ADS.finance sees relationship quality as a moat in a market where process efficiency is becoming table stakes.

What's next: - Uppal expects AI to become embedded across nearly every stage of financial services. - He expects borrowers to know more about what they can afford before they talk to a lender. - He also expects administrative steps to become less visible as automation expands. - Uppal said the defining competitive advantage over the next decade will be trust, not technology alone.

The bottom line: - AI may make financial services cheaper and faster, but ADS.finance's founder says the firms that win will be the ones that pair automation with trust, service and execution.