Data Governance, AI Ethics & Digital Transformation

Last week, the 8th edition of the CDO BFSI Exchange took place. With a wonderful turnout of senior data leaders and industry experts, attendees had plenty of opportunities to engage with others and have some fantastic discussions, as well as providing valuable networking opportunities and peer learning on pressing industry issues. They even managed to squeeze in some wine-tasting sessions with an expert sommelier, and a wonderful drinks reception in the stunning Syon House.

With all this going on, it gave me a fantastic opportunity to pull aside some speakers and delegates and ask them some prominent questions for this month’s edition of the CDO Newsletter. So, without further ado…

Why is data governance so important in the BFSI space?

Governance is crucial because we’re moving into a world where we’re starting to rely more on systems not fully understood. AI can scan petabytes of data extremely quickly. You can have as much data as you like, but it must be accurate, because the more we go down the road of blackbox decisioning, governance is crucial to sit across the whole framework and make sure one understands what’s happening, what the results mean and if they’re correct.

- David Hall, Head of Data Architecture Governance for Natwest

How can financial services companies use AI to gain a competitive advantage?

The revolution in AI is happening not necessarily where the popular narrative is. The popular narrative is all about ChatGPT, large language models and generative AI, but the most interesting use cases – whilst a lot more mundane – are coming out of banks and financial organisations putting their data to work. Over the years, they’ve built up all this customer information about risk, incidents – all kinds of data which wasn’t considered to be very useful. They’ve come to the realisation that this data can be used to train models to help prevent fraud, to identify other risks that weren’t necessarily known. All this data being able to help identify flaws and weaknesses successfully – it’s things like this rather than text or image generation that will actually transform the business.

- Andy Wrigley, Former Head of Communications, Data & Analytics for HSBC

What risks are companies facing that aren’t prioritising cultural buy-ins?

Look at the number of startup companies and new digital native companies who are really finding innovative ways to use data and maximise their potential. Large organisations realise that they need to compete with smaller companies, rather than traditional, larger corporations. They’re competing against data organisations who could potentially take their business at the drop of a hat. If they don’t realise that, and don’t adapt, organisations are risking irrelevance. The digital transformation has already wiped-out huge companies, which was thought impossible a few years ago, but yet it has. The BFSI space is not immune to this.

- Andy Wrigley, Former Head of Communications, Data & Analytics for HSBC

How can companies address AI ethical issues that arise?

The best test – not restricted to BFSI organisations – is the ‘Sleep test’. If something doesn’t feel right, or if there’s any way where someone can form their own negative opinion about a solution – will it cause you to lose sleep at night? That’s a good indicator. There’s no black and white, right or wrong – it’s morality. It’s about understanding your own personal ethics, and others perception as well. Everyone has their own personal framework of Ethics.

- David Hall, Head of Data Architecture Governance for Natwest

To gain further insights into the world of data science, governance and explore business-critical challenges posed by generative AI and it’s ethics, checkout our upcoming CDO Healthcare Exchange here.

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Charlie Instrall, Editor