Global Group Examines How AI is Shaping Financial Services

A recent report jointly conducted by the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and the World Economic Forum presents the findings of a global survey on artificial intelligence in the financial services sector. A total of 151 respondents from 33 countries participated in the survey, which sought to analyze the current state of AI adoption in financial services, as well as its subsequent implications. The study concluded that AI is expected to turn into an essential business driver across the industry in the short run, with 77% of all respondents anticipating AI to possess high or very high overall importance to their businesses within two years. Other key findings in the report:

• Approximately 64% of respondents anticipate employing AI in all of the following categories – generating new revenue potential through new products and processes, process automation, risk management, customer service and client acquisition – within the next two years. Only 16% of respondents currently employ AI in all of these areas.
• Risk management is the usage domain with the highest current AI implementation rates (56%), followed by the generation of new revenue potential through new AI-enabled products and processes, adopted by 52%.
• Quality of and access to data and access to talent are considered to be major obstacles to implementing AI for more than 80% of all respondents, whereas aspects like the cost of hardware/software, market uncertainty, and technological maturity appear to represent lesser hindrances.
• Almost 40% of all respondents feel that regulation hinders their implementation of AI, whereas just over 30% perceive that regulation facilitates or enables it. Firms’ assessments of the impact of regulation tend to be more positive in China than in the US, the UK, or mainland Europe.