The 10th International Conference on Smart Finance (ICSF2025) took place on July 1^st and 2^nd 2025 at the SEM. The conference was hosted by Tongji SEM, and co-organized by the Shenzhen Institute of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, and the Institute of Innovation Management Research of Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School. The theme of the conference is ” Shaping Finance Smarter: Redefining Financial Innovation with AI,” focusing on industry standard development, theoretical breakthroughs, and the synergistic development of academia, industry, and research. Academic authorities and industry leaders were invited to share their cutting-edge research findings and practical experiences, and to collectively explore the technological potential and development opportunities in the field of smart finance.

The opening remarks for this conference were delivered by Professor XIE En, Dean of Tongji SEM; Professor J. Leon ZHAO, President’s Chair Professor of Information Systems at the School of Economics and Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen); and Professor FENG Juan, Deputy Director of the Department of Management Science and Engineering, and Hong Hai Chair Professor at the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University.

Professor XIE En, Dean of Tongji SEM

Professor XIE En stated that cutting-edge technologies such as generative AI, multimodal fusion technology, blockchain, and quantum computing are driving digital finance toward a new stage of development. To address this challenge, Tongji SEM is pursuing a path of ‘digital intelligence, green development, and integration’ in line with Tongji University’s ‘AI+’ development strategy, with the aim of exploring transformative changes in talent cultivation models for the future.

Professor J. Leon ZHAO, President’s Chair Professor of Information Systems at the School of Economics and Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen)

In his speech, Professor Zhao, the founder of the International Conference on Smart Finance, reviewed the conference’s development over the past decade and shared his outlook on the future of smart finance, using the currently emerging stablecoin as an example.

Professor FENG Juan, Deputy Director of the Department of Management Science and Engineering, and Hong Hai Chair Professor at Tsinghua SEM

Professor FENG Juan elaborated on the connotation of smart finance and its close connection with management information systems (MIS), and introduced the active role played by Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management and its Shenzhen Research Institute in promoting the integration of AI and financial innovation.

Professor WANG Hongwei, Deputy Dean of Tongji SEM, presided over the opening remarks of the conference. At the main forum of the conference, distinguished scholars including Professor FENG Juan, Hong Hai Chair Professor at Tsinghua University; Professor ZHANG Xiaoquan, Wei Lun Chair Professor of Business Artificial Intelligence at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Professor WANG Chong, Head of the Department of Information Systems at the School of Business, City University of Hong Kong; Professor Sutirtha Chatterjee, Professor of Information Systems at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Professor FANG Yulin, Professor of Innovation and Information Management at the University of Hong Kong; Professor GE Yong, Professor at the University of Arizona; Dr. ZHANG Ting, Deputy General Manager of the Overseas Investment Department at Baoying Fund delivered keynote speeches.

The conference held an award ceremony for the best papers, with five papers receiving the “Best Paper in Track Award.” Among the five papers, the paper titled “Cognition-Experience Gap-Guided Sustained Engagement Prediction: A Novel Deep Learning Method” (authors: Zicong WANG, Gang CHEN, Jie LIN, and Shuaiyong XIAO) was awarded the “Best Paper Award”. Professor ZHAO Jianliang presented the certificate to the authors of this paper.

Professor ZHAO Jianliang presents the “Best Paper Award” to the authors

The International Conference on Smart Finance (ICSF) is affiliated with the Association for Information Systems (AIS). Since its establishment in 2016, the conference has become a key platform for fostering collaboration between academia and industry in the field of smart finance. The conference promotes in-depth collaboration between financial technology researchers and industry leaders. It has been held in several cities, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Beijing, Dubai and Shanghai. The next conference will take place at Shenzhen University next year.