How an AI Native Revolutionized Financial Risk in Fintech

What we talked about.

In this episode of The Sunny Ray Show, Sunny sits down with Gassen, CEO and co-founder of Incivio, a company building an agentic layer that helps fintech platforms like trading apps and crypto exchanges personalize user experience and increase transaction volume. Gassen shares his journey from Tunisia to Switzerland, where he trained as an actuary after starting as a machine learning engineer, and how that risk and data background shaped his approach to fintech. He reflects on lessons learned from founding six startups, emphasizing cultural fit over raw skill and the danger of chasing too many opportunities at once. The conversation moves into his early realization that compute power, not just algorithms, unlocked the current AI wave, and how that insight drives his work in credit risk, pricing, and personalized product experiences. Gassen explains how Incivio adapts interfaces in real time to individual users and envisions a future where learning and doing merge seamlessly within financial products. The episode closes with details on how listeners can connect with him on LinkedIn or through Incivio's website.

A Tunisian actuary turned AI founder explains how agentic layers are personalizing fintech, one user at a time.

The questions, and the answers.

Can you share a line or two about what Incivio does?

I'm CEO and co-founder of Incivio. We help fintech platforms like trading platforms and crypto exchanges increase transaction volume using our agentic layer, which helps their users not only navigate but transact more on their platforms.

You're originally from Tunisia. Tell us about your background.

Correct, I'm originally from Tunisia. I've been a founder and entrepreneur for the last 15 years, mainly building businesses at the intersection of fintech and AI. I'm a machine learning engineer by training, and I've always been fascinated by how mathematics and data apply to financial services and financial literacy.

You also spent time as an actuary. How did that happen?

That's correct. I was working as a business intelligence consultant doing projects for insurance companies, which had tons of data but weren't using machine learning on it. I realized that job was called an actuary, so I moved to Switzerland to study actuarial science and discovered the mathematics of risk in insurance.

You founded six startups. What was the most painful lesson from one that didn't make it?

Culture is really everything. I used to hire based on quantitative skills first, but I learned it's better to have someone who's a cultural fit even if less skilled, because a mismatch ends up being a disaster. Another lesson: just because something works with clients doesn't mean it will scale.

When did you first realize AI was no longer future tech but an immediate necessity?

Back in university 15 years ago, we didn't have today's compute power, even though the models existed conceptually. Once I saw how much data a machine could store and process compared to a human, I realized we'd gain superpowers. I still see this daily building models for credit risk, pharma pricing, and insurance.

What is the innovation crisis that Incivio is solving?

As a fintech operator you're busy with plumbing like AML and KYC, assuming users know what they're doing, but they often don't. Having users and having revenue become two separate things. Incivio sits between the user and the product, adapting the experience agentically to each individual instead of forcing everyone into the same UI.

How personalized does the adaptation actually get?

It's not just arrows or click-here prompts. Incivio reads a context graph and decision traces of user behavior to adapt the product to each person. If I'm quantitative and you're more visual, I'll see numbers while you see graphs, even though we're using the exact same product.

What does a smart office or learning environment look like in your vision for 2030?

Learning becomes normal and continuous, not something you sit down for. We talk about learning by doing, but in financial products the cost of a doing mistake can be huge, so you need a layer that helps users learn while still reaching their actual goal, like exchanging crypto, rather than learning for its own sake.