IBANYS × Upstate AI For banks only

AI Leadership for Bank Executives

Six live sessions for New York community bank leaders. You will not leave with notes. You will leave with a roadmap your board can read.

Register through IBANYS → Watch the 2 minute overview
Format
6 live sessions2 hours each, virtual
Runs
Oct 13 to Nov 139:00 to 11:00 AM
Credits
Up to 12 CPEIBANYS sponsor of record
Prerequisites
NoneNo programming, no tech background

Ben Nichols on why he built this program for community banks.

The problem

The distance between AI hype and AI execution

Most AI education for bank executives ends the same way. A certificate, a full notebook, and nothing your board can act on. You go back to the bank with better vocabulary and the same open question: so what do we actually do.

This program is built the other direction. Every session pairs a framework with hands on work against your own institution, and what you build across the six weeks becomes a single document you own.

It is specific to your bank because you wrote it. Which is also why you can defend it when a director asks the question you did not prepare for.

Not an academic survey. Not a vendor demo. Led by someone who deploys AI systems inside financial institutions.

What you leave with

Two things, both of them yours

01

An AI strategy and implementation roadmap

Built session by session against your own institution, not a template. The capstone is designed to secure internal buy in from your board, your executive team, and your budget committee.

02

Up to 12 CPE credits

Two credits per live session. IBANYS is authorized by the New York State Department of Education to grant CPE credit and is sponsor of record. Attendance at the live session is required.

The curriculum

Six sessions over five weeks

01
AI FoundationsWhat the technology actually does, where it breaks, and the vocabulary you need to run the rest of the program.
Tue, Oct 139:00 to 11:00 AM
02
Operational EfficiencyMapping the workflows inside your bank where AI earns its keep, and the ones where it does not.
Wed, Oct 219:00 to 11:00 AM
03
Audit and GovernanceThe controls, documentation, and oversight your examiners and your board will expect to see.
Wed, Oct 289:00 to 11:00 AM
04
CybersecurityHow AI changes the threat surface on both sides of the wire, and what that means for your existing program.
Wed, Nov 49:00 to 11:00 AM
05
Vendor EvaluationReading past the demo. What to ask, what to require in the contract, and what a real answer sounds like.
Fri, Nov 69:00 to 11:00 AM
06
Community and EthicsServing your community well while the technology moves, and presenting your finished roadmap.
Fri, Nov 139:00 to 11:00 AM

Every session is recorded and made available to registered participants. CPE credit is awarded for live attendance, so plan to be in the room for the sessions you need credit for.

Your instructor

Practitioner led

Ben Nichols, Founder and Principal Consultant at Upstate AI

Ben Nichols is Founder and Principal Consultant at Upstate AI and Adjunct Professor of Data Science at Syracuse University. He builds and runs AI systems commercially inside financial institutions, which is the other four days of his week.

That is the difference this program is built on. The frameworks come from work that shipped, the failure modes come from ones that did not, and the answer to a question about your specific core provider is not a shrug.

No technical prerequisites. No programming. This is strategic fluency for the people who have to make the decision and then defend it.