Kallner predicts what agentic AI will mean for the average South African five years from now, and the role Discovery Bank will play in this.
In this What’s Next with Aki Anastasiou interview, Hylton Kallner discusses the evolving role of technology in financial services.
Kallner is the CEO of Discovery Bank and has been part of the Discovery ecosystem for over 27 years.
In 2006, Kallner became Discovery’s chief marketing officer, a position he held for nine years. He was then appointed as the Discovery Life CEO in 2016, and Discovery South Africa CEO in 2020.
Just before, in 2019, Discovery entered the banking sector through Discovery Bank. Kallner took the reins as the new venture’s CEO in 2021 and has held this position ever since.
As CEO of Discovery Bank, Kallner has leveraged his extensive experience with and understanding of Discovery’s shared-value business model to drive growth.
Kallner holds a Bachelor of Economic Science, Actuarial Science, and Econometrics from the University of Witwatersrand.
Kallner is a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of South Africa (FASSA) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries (FFA).
In this What’s Next interview, Kallner reveals whether there was a specific moment when he realised AI would fundamentally change how people interact with their bank.
He unpacks the difference between AI that talks and AI that acts, and expands upon how the future of banking and financial services is premised on intelligence.
Kallner predicts what agentic AI will mean for the average South African five years from now and the role Discovery Bank will play in this.
He expands upon the role agentic AI will play moving forward across the entire Discovery ecosystem — not just Discovery Bank — and explains how Discovery is building a system that ensures the customer, and not AI, is in charge.
Kallner also talks about how Discovery Bank is placing South Africa in the global AI conversation, whether AI is the great financial democratiser, how Discovery’s expertise in behavioural science is beneficial in an AI era, and much more.
Watch the full interview with Hylton Kallner, below.
