2nd Conference on "Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Finance" and Finance Research Letters Paper Development Workshop
Following the successful "Generative AI in Finance" conference in 2024, Dresden University of Technology is pleased to announce a conference on “Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Finance” on 25-26 September 2025. The conference is organized by Lars Hornuf (Dresden University of Technology), Tony Klein (Chemnitz University), Denis Schweizer (Concordia University), Juliane Proelss (Concordia University), and Patrick Zschech (Dresden University of Technology).
The conference also serves as a paper development workshop for a special issue in Finance Research Letters. The Paper Development Workshop aims to offer a collaborative platform for researchers to present and refine their work prior to submission, and to receive valuable feedback from the guest editorial team as well as the Editor-in-Chief Tony Klein. Papers presented at the workshop are not required to be submitted to the Finance Research Letters special issue (participants may also attend solely to receive feedback), nor does participation in the workshop guarantee acceptance into the special issue. The event will be held in person in Dresden, with a limited number of online presentation slots available for participants facing travel restrictions.
Conference program
INTRODUCTION: AI in Corporate and Entrepreneurial Finance: A Research Agenda
Lars Hornuf (Professor of Finance and Financial Technology / Dresden University of Technology)
- Mapping potential research questions regarding AI in corporate and entrepreneurial finance
WORKSHOP 1 (morning): Using Local Resources to Run LLMs
Matthias Mattusch (Postdoc Chair of Finance and Financial Technology / Dresden University of Technology)
- Practical explanation of how to download, install, and run local large language models and how to fine tune them
WORKSHOP 2 (afternoon): Interpretable and Explainable AI for Machine Learning in Finance
Patrick Zschech (Professor of Business Information Systems, esp. Intelligent Systems and Services / Dresden University of Technology)
- Introduction to Explainable AI (XAI) and Interpretable ML (IML)
Overview of key concepts, motivations, and differences between explainability and interpretability, with relevance to finance applications.
- Model-Agnostic Explanation Techniques
Practical implementation of tools like SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) and LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations) to explain black-box models such as random forests and XGBoost.
- Intrinsically Interpretable Machine Learning Models
Practical implementation of interpretable models like Explainable Boosting Machine (EBM), Interpretable Generalized Additive Neural Networks (IGANN), and GAMI-Net.
- Visualization and Interpretation of Feature Importance
Hands-on exercises using Python (e.g., with scikit-learn, SHAP libraries, interpretML, etc.) to understand the contribution of financial variables in predictive models.
- Case Study: Credit Risk Modeling
End-to-end example applying explainable and interpretable AI approaches to assess creditworthiness, including model training, validation, and explanation of outputs to stakeholders.
- Limitations and Best Practices in Using XAI in Finance
Critical discussion of when and how to trust explanation methods, and how to communicate model insights responsibly to decision-makers.
- Presentations of accepted papers
- Keynote address by Anastassia Fedyk (UC Berkeley)
- Conference dinner at Moritz Restaurant (Neumarkt Dresden)
Submission Details (submission closed)
Researchers interested in participating should submit a full paper or extended abstract related to the theme Artificial Intelligence in Corporate Finance to by July 15, 2025. Authors will be notified about the outcome of their submission by July 31, 2025. We also offer limited slots for an online session within the conference. If you can only participate online, please let us know when submitting the paper.
Please find more details on the topics of interest and submission guidelines (particularly if authors intend to submit their papers also to the FRL special issue) here.
Registration
Early-bird registration fee until August 5, 2025: EUR 290 + VAT
For registrations between August 6, 2025 and September 19, 2025 (Registration Deadline): EUR 340 + VAT
Scholars from low income countries and PhD students presenting a single-author paper receive a 50% discount. The registration fee covers a light lunch, coffee breaks, and the conference dinner.
Note that it is also possible to attend the conference without presenting a paper. For example, PhD students are warmly invited to register for the PhD workshop or for both conference days, even without submitting a paper for presentation at the main conference on Day 2.
In addition, a second paper development workshop will take place at Concordia University on 27-29 October, 2025, organized by Denis Schweizer, Juliane Proelss (Concordia University), Christian Fieberg (Hochschule Bremen and Concordia University), Lars Hornuf (TU Dresden), and Tony Klein (Chemnitz University). For submission and additional details see the workshop webpage.
Anastassia Fedyk will be holding the keynote address at the AI in Corporate Finance Paper Development Workshop in Dresden
Keynote: Anastassia Fedyk (UC Berkeley)
Guest Editorial Team
Lars Hornuf (Dresden University of Technology)
Tony Klein (Technische Universität Chemnitz)
Denis Schweizer (Concordia University)
Scientific Committee
Anastassia Fedyk (UC Berkeley)
Lars Hornuf (Dresden University of Technology)
Tony Klein (Technische Universität Chemnitz)
Christine Laudenbach (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Alejandro Lopez-Lira (University of Florida)
Paul Momtaz (TU Munich)
Markus Pelger (Stanford University)
Matthias Pelster (University Duisburg-Essen)
Denis Schweizer (Concordia University)
Michael Weber (University of Chicago)
Samuel Vigne (LUISS Business School)
Patrick Zschech (Dresden University of Technology)
Stefan Zeisberger (Radboud University and University of Zurich)
Impact Hub Dresden
Location
The main conference on September 26 will take place at Impact Hub Dresden, centrally located at Trompeterstraße 5. The venue is easily accessible from Dresden Central Station—either by tram (stop: Prager Straße) or within a 15-minute walk. Numerous hotels are located within walking distance. From the Impact Hub, it’s just a short stroll to the world-famous Dresden Frauenkirche and other renowned landmarks of the historic Old Town.
The city of Dresden was recently awarded best in travel by Lonely Planet and is one of the top destinations worldwide according to the New York Times last year. Dresden not only offers world-class sights such as the Dresden Zwinger and the Green Vault, but also a first-class opera house and international art exhibitions.
Conference Dinner
The conference fee includes a 3-course meal on September 26, 2025, at the Moritz Restaurant, located directly on Dresden's Neumarkt.