AI in Action
Interview with
Michael Davies
CEO of Nextvestment — on building AI that serves everyone, not just the wealthy.
Hi everyone. I'm Michael Davies, CEO of Nextvestment. I've spent 15 years in financial technology, most recently as Chief Technology Officer of a major Singapore investment platform, and before that Head of Engineering at DBS Bank. My focus now is making personalised financial guidance available to everyone. I'm genuinely glad to be part of this competition. Here's what I'd like to share.
Q1
What is Nextvestment, and what problem was it built to solve?
The financial world has always worked well for wealthy people. They got expert advisors who understood their situation and gave them clear guidance. Everyone else had to figure it out alone. That gap costs ordinary people real money. Nextvestment uses AI to close it, giving every person personalised financial guidance through the banks and wealth firms they already use.
Q2
What makes a strong AI project at a competition like this?
The projects that stand out are the ones where you can feel the builder actually cared about the problem. Not just technically, but personally. You can tell when someone has thought hard about who they're building for and what their problem actually is. That empathy is visible in the work.
Q3
Students here are using micro:bit to build AI projects. What do you make of that?
Building with physical hardware is a genuinely useful habit. It forces you to ask: what does my idea actually do in the real world? Some of the most creative products I've seen came from people with limited tools who had to be inventive. That constraint is a gift.
Q4
What advice would you give students working on their projects right now?
Test your idea on a real person as early as you can. Not on a friend who will say it's great, but on someone who actually has the problem you're trying to solve. What you learn in that first conversation will change your project more than hours of extra building. Start small, test early, and let what you learn shape what you build next. That is how good ideas become real ones.
Closing
What you're doing here — building AI for Good — is exactly the kind of thinking that changes industries. Good luck with your projects. Come find us at nextvestment.com.