The Power of AI: How is artificial intelligence transforming financial services?

December 13, 2023

We have published a new global report, The Power of AI: How is artificial intelligence transforming financing services, which features responses from a cross-section of financial services clients surveyed around the world in relation to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) solutions.

More than three quarters of financial services firms surveyed are either considering or are already using AI or ML solutions.

While only 6% of respondents said they are at the point of moving towards large scale adoption or development of AI/ML solutions, many confirmed they are in the early stages of assessing or developing the tools’ potential across at least some areas of their business. Less than a quarter (24%) of respondents said that they do not currently use AI/ML at all.

A total of 94% say that they will (71%) or may (23%) use AI/ML solutions more in the next three years. A sizeable 87% of respondents said that they are already using, have confirmed plans to use, or are already evaluating use of, large language models such as ChatGPT or LaMDA.

The survey reveals that use cases for AI/ML are quite varied, with many currently involving automation - for example, document generation and IT security - rather than automated decision-making.

Barriers to adopting AI/ML among surveyed financial services firms are also varied, with a lack of expertise (23%) and limitations around the availability of data and/or the right to use such data (19%) both mentioned as key factors.

The risks that financial services firms are most concerned about include training data and data protection compliance (28%) and biased outcomes (24%).

The efficacy of ML models depends on access to sufficient amounts of training data. This can be a challenge to source internally or externally. Synthetic data sources and extensive training of the system might be required.

Many financial services firms appear to still be in the planning stage, with relatively few respondents (15%) saying they are currently discussing their plans to adopt AI/ML with regulators.

In the UK the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority will want to see firms putting in place governance arrangements around all stages in the AI lifecycle. Robust governance is likely to be one of the key means through which firms can give the regulator comfort about their evolving use of AI. For more information on AI and governance, see our video Foundations for good AI governance.

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