What happens when you gather some of the Baltics sharpest fintech minds in one place? You get bold ideas, honest reflections, and a glimpse into the future of finance that's anything but boring. Baltic Fintech Days 2025 was exactly that. Read below to learn key insights from eight finance leaders we met at this stellar event.
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With Vilnius bathed in sunshine and buzzing with energy, the two-day event brought together startups, scale-ups, and global fintech forces for conversations that were anything but surface-level.
Day one featured the Baltic Fintech Days News Pop-Up hosted by TransferGo, where our very own Saulius Žlabys, VP of Payments & Country Manager, Payhawk Lithuania, unveiled Payhawk’s Spring ’25 Product Edition: The AI Office of the CFO. He spoke about the opportunities our AI agents will bring to finance teams around the world, like eliminating manual tasks and gaining more time for strategic work that truly drives business growth.
On the second day, Saulius participated in a fireside chat with Modestas Tursa, VP of Payments at Vinted, moderated by Gintarė Verbickaitė, CEO of Unicorns Lithuania. Their discussion focused on the crucial question of how fintech can contribute to sustainable growth and why it is a pressing concern.
In between sessions, espresso shots, and video interviews, we asked eight standout fintech leaders for their boldest predictions and toughest challenges around implementing AI. Here’s what they said and why it matters.
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"More cooperation between banks and the fintechs," said Audrius Griskevicius, CEO and Co-Founder of Softloans when asked about his main fintech prediction. "Fintechs have built incredibly consumer-friendly products, but it’s hard to scale. Banks bring credibility and reach."
In short: fintechs have the tech, banks have the trust. A match made in financial heaven? Possibly. Partnerships between fintechs and banks are already on the rise, with a McKinsey report noting over 80% of banks globally plan to deepen these alliances.
Gabrielius Erikas Bilkstys, CEO & Co-Founder of AMLYZE, envisions this cooperation taking on fraud at scale: "Banks and fintechs will start to collaborate on financial crime prevention... decreasing numbers of fraud and scammed people."
Given how fast fraudsters move - and how slow some institutions are to adapt - this kind of collaboration could shift the entire risk landscape.
"In the very near future, all fintech will be AI-driven," predicted Gintarė Verbickaitė, CEO of Unicorns Lithuania. "It will improve speed, decision-making, and the customer experience beyond our imagination."
This isn’t just a hunch. A 2024 survey by NVIDIA revealed that 91% of financial services companies are either assessing AI or already using it in production. These firms are leveraging AI to drive innovation, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. Whether it’s spotting fraud in milliseconds or automating expense categorisation, AI is the engine driving the next generation of fintech.
"Everything will be real time," said Justinas Lasevicius, Co-Founder of TransferGo. "Instead of manually processing invoices, systems will automatically verify and pay them in seconds."
Sounds great? It’s already happening. Tools like ours are making batch payments and approval chains feel ancient. Justinas is thinking bigger though: "Long term, finance will be managed by voice... you'll talk to your personal financial partner."
Marius Galdikas, CEO of ConnectPay, shares that vision. "I want to ask my mobile agent to book a flight to Thailand... and just confirm with one prompt."
Basically: AI will know your budget, your preferences, your calendar and then just get on with it.
Vilma Radzevičienė, Head of Communications at TransferGo, took it one step further: "All future payments, cross-border transactions, purchases will happen in a blink of your mind. Not even an eye."
Okay, maybe we’re not quite there yet. But with the rise of biometric authentication and invisible payments, we’re not far off.
Ieva Mackevičiūtė, Senior Account Manager at Particle Agency, pointed to a disappearing act: "It’s going to be such a seamless experience and such an integrated part of our everyday life that we won’t even be distinguishing fintech anymore."
In other words, when fintech is truly successful, we’ll stop calling it fintech. It’ll just be life.
"We’ll see more fintech embedded in other marketplaces," said Saulius Žlabys, VP of Payments and Country Manager Lithuania at Payhawk. "Not just offering financial products, but integrating into platforms and services people already use."
The idea? Meet people where they are. Whether it’s getting credit while checking out on Shopify, or accessing insurance from your rideshare app, embedded finance is projected to become a $7 trillion industry by 2030.
And if you’re not embedding? You might be left behind.
It turns out, there’s more than one hurdle. Here are the main challenges in implementing AI according to our interviewees.
"In financial crime prevention, the biggest challenge is a lack of well-structured data," said Gabrielius Erikas Bilkstys. "If you train AI on garbage data, you get garbage results."
It’s a brutal truth, and a common one. According to Gartner, poor data quality costs companies an average of $12.9 million a year. AI doesn’t magically fix that. In fact, it just magnifies the mess.
Audrius Griskevicius adds another watch-out: "We need less hallucination. People will use AI to make financial decisions, but hallucinations are dangerous."
When you’re dealing with millions in company spend, there’s no room for AI guesswork.
"Regulation and compliance will be the main barrier," warned Gintarė Verbickaitė. "Europe is moving fast on AI regulation. It could increase the burden for companies."
She’s talking about the EU AI Act,the world’s first comprehensive AI legislation. Financial services fall under the “high-risk” category, which means strict oversight, more paperwork, and a real need for transparency.
Marius Galdikas believes the answer lies in digital identity. "If my identity lives on my device, and I can confirm it with biometrics, then everything else becomes irrelevant."
He’s not alone. Initiatives like EBSI are already exploring how to make digital identity a seamless and secure reality.
"The biggest barrier to AI isn’t the tech," said Justinas Lasevicius. "It’s mindset... people try to apply AI to existing processes instead of rethinking them."
He’s got a point. According to Deloitte, culture - not tech - is the biggest hurdle to AI adoption. Reinventing your finance function takes guts, not just algorithms.
Saulius Žlabys chimed in: "People are still resistant to AI because it's new. But AI will take over manual tasks, freeing people to focus on growth."
The takeaway? We need to get comfortable with discomfort.
"The biggest barrier to any innovation is our imagination and will," said Vilma Radzevičienė. "Will we empower AI for good? To beat poverty? To end war? That’s what I’m hoping for."
Ieva Mackevičiūtė brought it back to basics: "The financial industry is still run on Excel sheets. AI is just the beginning. If we’re open to innovation and work with it, good things will come."
It’s not about the tools. It’s about what we choose to build with them.
At Payhawk, we’re already helping finance teams rethink their processes from the ground up. Our AI Office of the CFO is built to do exactly what these leaders are calling for: cut manual work, reduce waste, and make finance faster, smarter, and more impactful.
From AI-powered invoice extraction to automatic reconciliations and smart budget control suggestions, we’re not just layering AI on top - we’re reimagining how finance works.
As these fintech leaders have shown, the future isn’t about minor upgrades. It’s about a mindset shift. Ready to see how AI can transform your spend management? Schedule a meeting with one of our experts today.
Alexander Vladimirov is the Senior Content Manager at Payhawk, responsible for Bulgaria, the CEE region, and the Baltics. He began developing his writing and editing skills in the advertising industry, working with clients across various sectors, including finance and telecommunications. As a marketing professional, he is passionate about creating engaging content that highlights cutting-edge insights from top experts in the fintech industry.
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