Forward-thinking financial institutions already understand that properly deployed AI can yield worthy benefits – not just when it comes to making the sector more efficient, but in providing a more intuitive, engaging user experience. According to a Business Insider report, 80% of banks understand that AI technology is fast becoming standard-operating-procedure. A similar number are already investing in research and acquisition programs designed to adapt to the obvious future. The centrality of AI technologies to the financial sector today is also forcing developers and business managers alike to re-think the way they refer to new developments in the industry. A decade ago, any consumer-facing application that dealt with finance was referred to as part of the "fintech landscape."

For financial firms, the cloud is going to increasingly become a crucial part of dealing with customers over the next five years and beyond, particularly with the growing use and acceptance of virtual currencies. There are new data storage paradigms on the horizon that will deliver secure solutions for storing and moving sensitive financial data around the world without touching terrestrial networks. In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Cliff Beek, President of Cloud Constellation Corporation, discussed new best practices to bypass the internet and the many applications for this technology, including the financial sector, which is notoriously vulnerable to attack. Speaker Bio Cliff Beek is the president of Cloud Constellation Corporation. He has extensive experience with the management and financing of equity-backed ventures within areas of satellite, mobile broadband, mobile app development and cloud infrastructure entities.