AI 'only scratching the surface' of potential in financial services

Financial services companies are becoming hooked on artificial intelligence, using it to automate menial tasks, analyse data, improve customer service and comply with regulations. About half of financial services and insurance firms globally already use AI, according to a 2019 study by research group Forrester, and that number is expected to grow as new uses are found for the technology. "We are only scratching the surface of the potential that AI has for the industry," says Katherine Wetmur, Morgan Stanley's international chief information officer. Financial institutions already use AI to analyse stock market data and machine learning to improve fraud detection -- technology that Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, last year said saves the US bank $150m annually. Another US bank, Morgan Stanley, also uses AI for fraud detection, virtual assistants for customer inquiries and for "sentiment analysis", which measures how positive or negative an analyst is about a company stock.