AI’s Evolving Impact on Financial Services: Key Takeaways from the FT Live Future of AI Event

Toward the end of 2024, I had the pleasure of attending the FT Live Future of AI Event. The event provided a platform for thought leaders, innovators and policymakers to discuss AI’s transformative potential across industries. Adobe’s Suzanne Steele joined our customer, NatWest, in a discussion of AI governance and decision-making- a crucial conversation for financial services leaders. I was also delighted to talk at the FT Live Global Banking Summit about personalisation within the Banking Sector and how AI is changing this space in particular.

As someone who engages with customers daily, I’m acutely aware of the buzz surrounding AI, and in particular GenAI, and the experimentation happening across the sector. Here are some of the ‘top-of-mind' challenges, both for me and that were highlighted at the event:??

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AI: a Strategic Gamechanger??

AI has reached a tipping point for many industries globally, including financial services. There are use cases across almost every element of customer experience to back-office operations. However, many banks and FSIs are still in proof-of-concept phase, particularly for Generative AI.

Success depends on thoughtful integration into existing processes. While AI can drive efficiency, it is only as good as the data, processes and people it’s enhancing. Whilst there have been lots of successes with AI automation and back office processes, there are still lots of experiments and conversations that I'm having at the moment are around the business transformation and risk understanding that’s required for GenAI readiness.

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The Global Regulatory Puzzle?

AI regulation is a hot topic with customers I speak to at the moment, and the event was no different. Different regions are taking different approaches - with the EU’s focus on consumer protection, to China’s focus on industrial growth, and potential shifts under the new US administration.??

For financial services, the challenge lies in navigating this fragmented regulatory landscape while maintaining consistency across the organisation, especially for those operating across multiple borders.? A robust governance framework tailored to specific use cases will be essential to mitigate risks while capitalising on AI and GenAI's benefits in different geographies.??

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Build or buy: Making the Right AI Decision?

A major topic is whether to build or buy AI solutions. The key is to build purposefully—to solve specific business problems and to improve the consumer experience. Here are some of the questions I regularly ask when talking to financial service institutions:?

• What’s the specific use case???

• What’s your in-house AI capability??

• What’s your in-house AI literacy??

• What are the guard rails for employee use??

• How have the models been tested and what bias risks are inherent??

• What’s the indemnification for AI??

• How will you evaluate the performance??

At Adobe, we like many organisations have deployed AI and GenAI into our own workflows as a B2B and B2C organisation. We’re proud also to be a strategic partner for organisations navigating these complexities and looking to implement new workflows in their creative and digital experience operations. There are links at the bottom of this article if you want to learn more about Adobe’s capabilities and thoughts on these questions.??

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Embedding AI in Financial Services?

Effective AI adoption requires a cultural shift. The technology is simply moving too fast to follow some of the current change management processes. It’s becoming a cultural aspect of transformation as much as technology or operations: embedding governance by design, fostering creativity, and prioritising compliance.?

Financial services firms have invested in skills like prompt engineering, change management, and leadership to navigate this transformation and this will continue at an ever faster pace into the future. AI Review Boards and similar governance mechanisms can provide oversight but must avoid becoming bottlenecks. The goal is to balance agility with accountability, allowing the technology to evolve within a set of clear boundaries and control frameworks where the business can have confidence in its expanding us and reap the benefits of expanding at scale, fast.

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Moving Beyond the Playground: GenAI in Production?

One of the most inspiring things for me in the coming months and years is seeing FSIs move GenAI from experimentation to delivering tangible business outcomes- in production. Overall the tone compared to a year ago feels far more balanced - AI and GenAI promises to have big impacts in the years to come in almost all parts of our lives potentially, but it doesn't mean organisations should apply look to use it for its sake immediately. Those being most successful thus far have found existing challenges that the application of this technology can demonstrably improve, such as the speed at which content can be safely created, or the reduction in repetitive tasks that are far better suited to this technology.?It has allowed for a test and evolve environment within parameters and is already having significant benefits to the top and bottom lines.

I'm very much looking forward to what the next 12 months will bring in this area. For more on Adobe’s capabilities in this space, check out the links below:?

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• Missing Link: AI and the Content Supply Chain?

• Unlocking Personalization at Scale with GenAI?