Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: How Matt Michaelis is Building Emprise Bank’s Second Brain (Episode 2)
Fintech Takes Banking x Parlay Finance presents Agent of Record: How Matt Michaelis is Building Emprise Bank’s Second Brain (Episode 2)  
Podcast: Bank Nerd Corner
Published On: Mon Jul 27 2026
Description: Agent of Record is a 12-episode limited series podcast that explores artificial intelligence in financial services. In this episode, co-hosts Kiah Haslett (Fintech Takes Banking) and Alex McLeod (Parlay Finance) are joined by Matt Michaelis, chairman and CEO at Emprise Bank, a $2.7 billion community bank headquartered in Wichita, KS. Matt shares how Emprise's AI journey started with a single data scientist hired in 2018 and makes a candid admission: He didn't know what he needed to know. Eight years later, the Empire Bank runs real-time health scores on commercial customers and is building a second brain: a system that captures how credit decisions actually get made so institutional judgment outlives any one banker's tenure. Listen as Matt makes the case for treating generative AI as operational risk rather than model risk. His advice to fellow bankers: try it yourself, and build for where the models are going. And he assigns Kiah homework in the same spirit: Build a second brain of her own! --- This episode is brought to you by Parlay Finance.  Small business and SBA lenders lose hours chasing documents and checking eligibility before a deal ever reaches underwriting. Parlay Finance's AI-native Loan Intelligence System (LIS) cuts manual work to qualify a deal by 80% — automating intake, document processing and deal structuring upstream of the Loan Origination System (LOS) — so lenders can close more loans without sacrificing credit quality. See how at ⁠www.parlay.finance⁠  Emprise Bank powers customers' ambitions with innovative tech and personalized service. To learn more, visit emprisebank.com --- Fintech Takes Banking is the weekly newsletter for bank execs who get it. Subscribe for the latest in regulation, tech, financials, operations and, yes, accounting, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/⁠⁠⁠⁠ --- Follow Kiah: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khaslett/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/khaslett Subscribe to Kiah: https://fintechtakes.com/banking/newsletter-subscription/ Follow Alex:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcleodalexandra/ Learn more about Parlay Finance: https://www.parlay.finance/  Follow Matt: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-michaelis/