Artificial intelligence is one of the most hot-button topics these days. Countless industries are beginning to utilize AI tools in the interest of becoming more agile and responding to market demands more quickly and efficiently – and the finance realm is no different. In fact, AI is becoming a major buzzword in the financial services industry. Banks are beginning to utilize these kinds of technologies to make sense of all the customer data flowing into their organizations, which helps to capitalize on key insights and create better business practices by addressing industry concerns as they come up. It's becoming clear that banks will need to create even stronger AI strategies in the near future in order to deal with the rapidly changing regulatory environment and customer demand.

It is surprising how much ink is spilled on theories that banking is about to be wiped out by a tsunami called fintech, resulting in the alleged mass closure of banks and unemployment of financial services professionals. Last time I was in New York, Wall Street was intact and thriving and specialized financial crime lawyers like myself were busier than ever. First, the law stands in the way of fintech displacing even one dollar of financial services. A fintech company is not a Brooklyn pizza stand – it cannot survive without being connected to the financial system, which requires a banking partner and a banking relationship. In other words, fintech cannot disrupt anything unless the banks and lawyers (as regulators) let them.