Artificial Intelligence takes many forms in banking, but most firms have yet to begin implementing the technology. Learn where AI can add value to your bank and which specific technologies you should evaluate first. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is extraordinarily popular when judged by today's banking headlines, but those headlines have outpaced today's practical banking reality. Relatively few banks have begun production or even full-blown research at this stage, so Celent seeks to provide an introduction and path forward for banks studying this hot topic. We take a pragmatic approach that defines AI in banking as technology that makes inferences and decisions that used to require direct human involvement.

Celent has released a new report titled Artificial Intelligence in Insurance: Use Cases from Early Adopters. The report was written by Wenli Yuan, a senior analyst with Celent's Insurance practice. Leveraging artificial intelligence, insurers are able to engage with consumers in a faster and more consistent manner. They can use virtual customer service representatives at contact centers to free up staff to deal with more complicated inquiries; use robo advisors to provide consistent, rule-based advisory services at an affordable cost; and use virtual assistants to guide processes and related transactions. Insurers can also upgrade authentication mechanisms to biometrics authentication, such as voice recognition.

Artificial intelligence can help businesses identify new clients and streamline back office operations, but so far, only the largest companies have found the data-heavy tech practical. Early adopters of artificial intelligence are expecting substantial increases in profitability in 2018, according to the Nationwide's Advisor Authority survey of 1,700 advisors. But, those that used big data were also more likely to have sizeable assets under management, over $250 million in AUM and incomes of more than $500,000. That's because, for more modest firms, fewer clients mean less reliable data. "Wealth managers are still struggling to get a consistent line of sight on customer data and that includes things like demographics and transaction data," says William Trout, senior analyst at the consulting firm Celent.

Insurers are increasingly interested in ways to make better use of data in their daily business decisions. Indeed, almost half of the CIOs we have surveyed this year mentioned that they are currently working on analytics including AI, machine learning, etc. It is also interesting to observe that a minority of insurers (5%) is not working on this topic currently. Our recent Model Insurer program helped us better understand what insurers are doing around data, analytics and AI. The awards' winners in this category have leveraged analytics and AI to improve various facets of their business.

The findings have been published in the report titled, "Achieving Integrated GRC in an Interconnected Digital Age." According to the report, key factors impacting risk and compliance executives include the need and expectation of real benefits from digital technologies, such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, as well as distributed ledger technology (blockchain) to bring measurable increases in efficiency to risk management operations. At the same time, many firms are facing challenges in moving toward the future. At a fundamental level, the report indicates that risk operations are having difficulty developing agile capabilities and continue to be hampered by inflexible technology. Thomson Reuters commissioned the independent survey to better understand the impact of these challenges and opportunities, as risk and compliance executives increasingly face intense, enterprise-wide regulatory scrutiny around strong governance and sound internal controls.

It's another step in the march toward advice that erodes investors' needs for human help: A robo advisor focused on serving the high-net-worth client, powered by artificial intelligence and designed to automate their specific tax management concerns. Meeting the complicated needs of the wealthy requires a deep knowledge of tax rules and regulations says Hedgeable CEO Mike Kane. "Technology and AI systems can interpret and learn from these rules better than humans can, without our emotional biases." Doubling down on its embrace of Asian themes, Hedgeable's newest offering in its robo platform is a feature called'Tax Samurai,' run by an AI bot called'Katana.' For 30 basis points, it will work for client accounts with a minimum of $1 million to analyze their securities, aggregate all of their financial data, create tax efficient transfers, apply automated downside protection on any current holdings, and perform tax efficient trading and tax-loss harvesting.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is extraordinarily popular if you are judging by today's insurance headlines. And if you are like me, your inbox is full of email with subject lines that include the words machine learning, AI, and natural language. The reality is that the headlines and the email have outpaced the practical insurance reality. Relatively few insurers have begun production or even full-blown research at this stage. Even though there has been a lack of progress to date, it doesn't mean insurers can afford to ignore AI.

Many financial services industry firms are examining the potential of distributed ledger and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Is it too early for any meaningful deployment? Heather McKenzie, editor of Daily News at Sibos, investigates. If distributed ledger and blockchain was the flavour of the week at last year's Sibos in Geneva, this year AI looks set to take the technology hype crown. In the wider world, there is plenty of interest in AI, with some warning of a dystopian future in which machines rule the world.

It's another step in the march toward advice that erodes investors' needs for human help: A robo adviser focused on serving the high-net-worth client, powered by artificial intelligence and designed to automate their specific tax management concerns. Meeting the complicated needs of the wealthy requires a deep knowledge of tax rules and regulations says Hedgeable CEO Mike Kane. "Technology and AI systems can interpret and learn from these rules better than humans can, without our emotional biases." Doubling down on its embrace of Asian themes, Hedgeable's newest offering in its robo platform is a feature called'Tax Samurai,' run by an AI bot called'Katana.' For 30 basis points, it will work for client accounts with a minimum of 1 million to analyze their securities, aggregate all of their financial data, create tax efficient transfers, apply automated downside protection on any current holdings, and perform tax efficient trading and tax-loss harvesting.