Finance of the Future: Where to Expect the Next Revolution

On September 2, 2026, as part of the Mentor Seminar of the Master's program in Finance, a guest lecture was delivered by Alexander Kleshchev — Managing Director and Member of the Board of Directors of the investment company LMS. The topic of the meeting was "Where in finance will the revolution happen and how to learn to spot it before others".

The event brought together students interested in exploring new horizons in the financial industry. The lecturer offered the audience not just an overview of current trends, but a toolkit for independently identifying areas of change — industries and processes poised for radical transformation.

Alexander Kleshchev presented three key concepts for systematically analysing changes in the financial sector: Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation (product overshoot), Ronald Coase's theory of transaction costs, and the behavioural theory of Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler (loss aversion). Special attention was given to a checklist of five practical signs that help distinguish superficial changes from genuine revolutionary shifts.

Students examined two real-life cases from Russian practice: wealth management for clients with capital between $100,000 and $3 million ("too rich for an app, too poor for real service") and the system for assessing client risk profiles in Russian banks, which revealed fundamental contradictions between regulatory requirements and actual practice.

In the final part of the lecture, the speaker addressed the question on every future financier's mind: "Will artificial intelligence replace us?". The answer was clear: data collection, calculations, reports, and standard models will be automated. However, judgment under uncertainty, access (to deals and to people), the willingness to take responsibility for decisions, and the ability to ask the right questions — these will remain uniquely human.

Inspiration for Future Research

The lecturer emphasised the unique value of graduate studies as a period when you can afford to think deeply about a single question — unlike in the workplace, where the time horizon shrinks to a quarter. Students were encouraged to "claim one question for themselves" — to become the person whom others come to with that very question two years from now.

Attendees noted that the lecture offered a fresh perspective on professional development: not as adapting to inevitable changes, but as an opportunity to become an author of new solutions and, perhaps, to lead the next financial revolution.

The Master's programme in Finance thanks Alexander Kleshchev for the open dialogue and valuable practical experience, and looks forward to continued collaboration.