Leading a training on applying AI to fintech business models

In late 2023, Digital Disruptions approached Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR), a market facilitator in the country, to conduct a training on AI to its partners. AFR agreed and suggested the training be customized to leading fintech start-ups part of an existing program it was managing, the Fintech Catalytic Fund. In early 2024, Digital Disruptions conducted a half-day training in Kigali, Rwanda to 7 fintech start-ups.

Approach & Outcome

After providing an initial overview of the core principles of AI, the Digital Disruptions team then explained how AI can be used in five key areas of its Holistic Fintech Business Model framework: user research, product value proposition, marketing awareness, customer experience, and customer service.

Digital Disruptions’ trainings are both experiential and user-centered, and this one was no exception.  Participants used various software to build prototypes in just 15 minutes for each of the five areas aligned with their start-up’s goals.  They also conducted empathy interviews (at the onset of the training) and received feedback from their prototypes (at the end of it) with a prospective user that had been recruited by AFR to the venue.

Beyond explaining how to apply AI, a key training objective was to empower start-ups to use it in a variety of business areas.  In an anonymous post-event feedback survey asking to what extent they would recommend the training to a colleague, participants gave 4.8 out of a possible 5, confirming the positive comments received throughout the day.