Marqeta Names Amazon Vet Fouzi Husaini as Chief AI Officer

Card issuing platform Marqeta has a new chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer.

Fouzi Husaini, a veteran of Amazon and Capital One, will play a key role in Marqeta’s efforts to scale its AI organization, the company announced Monday (Sept. 23).

“We’re thrilled to have Fouzi on board,” Marqeta Chief Product and Technology Officer Randy Kern said in a news release.

“His deep knowledge of AI and machine learning, combined with decades of on-the-ground AI leadership at top companies, will be instrumental in shaping our technology roadmap and leveraging AI to expand our capabilities in transaction intelligence, fraud prevention, and customer service.”

Husaini joins Marqeta from Capital One, where he served as vice president of machine learning (ML) engineering, focused on developing ML models for the company’s credit products/services. Before that, he oversaw a technical team at Amazon that created AI/ML customer-facing experiences for Alexa users.

Marqeta introduced its first external-facing generative AI tool last summer. Marqeta Docs AI, powered by OpenAI’s large language models (LLMs) lets Marqeta customers ask questions, find answers to individual use cases and more quickly understand products.

In other AI news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the way the technology is easing the administrative burden on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), giving them more space to focus on growth and strategy.

“AI can help integrate data from across spreadsheets, PDFs and business units, unlocking insights that can improve operations and progress toward business goals,” IBM Head of Sustainability Software Christina Shim said in an interview with PYMNTS.

And recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence found that 96% of SMBs that have employed AI tools — though not necessarily GenAI — saw it as an effective way to streamline tasks.

Among the most impactful areas of AI adoption is the automation of administrative tasks. For example, AI-powered tools such as chatbots, virtual assistants and automated scheduling software can handle customer inquiries, appointment bookings and routine communications, giving human workers more time to manage more strategic tasks.

“Separately, AI tools that leverage natural language processing (NLP) can assist in drafting emails, documents and reports, reducing the need for manual input and allowing businesses to operate more efficiently,” PYMNTS wrote.