Artificial Intelligence: A smart investment for financial services firms

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly gaining momentum as a vital business resource as organizations discover new use cases in their efforts to improve processes, increase efficiency and automate costly, manual tasks. Industries such as financial services are ideal for AI-driven applications and a related technology, machine learning (ML), because they can bolster customer service and leverage data to increase competitiveness. AI includes software that's designed to work in ways similar to the human brain, while machine learning encompasses programs that alter themselves based on data that's fed into the programs in order to train them. Recent industry research gives a sense of how AI usage is on the rise. Global spend on AI is forecasted to double during the next four years, growing to $110 billion in 2024, according to research firm IDC's Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide.