Artificial intelligence is reshaping finance

Last week Barclays' credit card business struck a deal with Amazon to offer seamless customised shopping and payment services in Germany. The announcement drew little attention amid the US election, pandemic pain -- and the cancellation of Ant Financial's putative $37bn initial public offering. But investors and regulators should pay attention. That is not because of what the deal shows about German shopping habits, Amazon's voracious expansion or Barclays strategy, per se. Instead, the German tie-up's real significance is as a tiny, but unusually visible, sign of a feverish race under way at banks and tech companies to find ways to use big data and artificial intelligence in finance. Essentially, Barclays and Amazon are linking data with AI analysis to approve credit (or not) and predict what customised services clients will want next.