There’s an automation revolution taking place and blockchain technology could play a pivotal role in it, according to Scott Helfstein. “As we think about … this broader transition towards automation and digitalization, blockchain can really play an important role in securing information and facilitating data management,” he said. Helfstein, Global X ETFs’ head of thematic solutions, sat down with CNBC Pro at the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals’ VISION conference in Austin, Texas this week for a wide-ranging conversation that covered AI, how to get exposure to crypto and the need for a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. One of the big challenges of AI is there often isn’t a way to easily identify where information is coming from in some algorithms, but blockchain technology offers a transparent and auditable technology as a potential solution. Helfstein broke AI into various levels, from infrastructure providers like semiconductor companies and graphic chip makers to algorithm providers like OpenAI and its ChatGPT. Across all of it though is blockchain technology and a way to secure information fed into AI algorithms. Crypto is “interesting,” he said, but corporate investment is pouring into automation and blockchain will play a “critical” role in its development. Although, that use case could serve as a stepping stone for broader acceptance and adoption of crypto, he added. “As people interact with private blockchains, they’ll see some of the benefits of the private blockchains and that’ll be supportive of some of these public blockchains including cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum that’s being used in Web 3.0 applications.”