Earlier this year, it was reported that an artificial intelligence (AI) robot called Libratus won $1.5m worth of chips from four of the world's top poker players in a three-week challenge. Whilst this might be seen as a crushing defeat for mankind, it is a huge leap for AI. Machine learning isn't a brand new concept and when we look specifically at the financial services (FS) sector, its noticeable that it has always been one of the lead drivers of new technology trends with data analytics, mobile banking and new payment methods. However, with the next wave of technology disruption set to come from AI, how can banks and FS providers ensure they exploit the benefits? Despite the FS market being generally seen as leaders when implementing new technology, some are still struggling with legacy tech such as cloud platforms and applications.