Despite banks' simultaneous excitement and fear of artificial intelligence as perhaps one of the most transformative technologies for their business, they've been quieter about IBM's Watson. Watson is a cognitive technology and super-computer comprising AI that "learns" how to draw conclusions from data, natural language understanding – which allows it to read and understand unstructured data, like social media posts and digital photos – and a search engine that can comb through millions of data points in seconds. It holds enormous promise in the long term for banks, who hold troves of customer data they're constantly studying and using to create better customer experiences as well as improve operational efficiencies. "What a Watson could deliver to banks would be tools to ensure sales people are selling the right things to the right people at the right time," said Ryan Gilbert, a partner at Propel Ventures. "Wells Fargo probably wouldn't have an eight financial product sales challenge if it had a Watson," because Watson wouldn't have allowed such rules to be set for employees to follow.

After decades of false starts, artificial intelligence (AI) is already pervasive in our lives. Although invisible to most people, features such as custom search engine results, social media alerts and notifications, e-commerce recommendations and listings are powered by AI-based algorithms and models. AI is fast turning out to be the key utility of the technology world, much as electricity evolved a century ago. Everything that we formerly electrified, we will now cognitize. AI's latest breakthrough is being propelled by machine learning--a subset of AI which includes abstruse techniques that enable machines to improve at tasks through learning and experience.

They're everywhere from ordering a takeaway to medical diagnosis to finding your soulmate- and the Financial Services industry has not been left untouched. These virtual assistants can create a real-time dialogue with users that is personalised to their needs and effective in solving a given problem. Below highlights examples of how chat bots can act to shift companies from a service provider to so much more. Furthermore, with so many desirable benefits, the risks involved and how best to approach chat bots in the FS industry must be carefully considered! ClearScore have developed a credit checking service known as "Coaching" intended to help millions of people improve their credit score.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is slowly becoming a bigger part of our lives, including our personal finances. Over the past few years its importance has grown behind the scenes, where AI is deployed in administration and even fraud detection. Dominic Baliszewski, director of consumer strategy at financial wellbeing company Momentum UK, says: "It is already used in a number of sectors, from banking and advisory to mortgages and pensions, and in many cases, it's led to a quicker, more streamlined customer experience, while easing employee workloads." RBS, for example, has rolled out a virtual assistant called Luvo for call centre staff: when a customer asks a question, the staff member can ask Luvo. In the past year, however, its presence has moved from the back office to the front line, and we have started to see AI serving customers.

The adoption and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to accelerate at an exponential rate in modern businesses. As referenced in the 2017 Tech Trend Report, AI is nearing completion of the next layer in technological advancement, integrated into everything individuals and organizations do. This trajectory is predicted to drive cumulative worldwide spending of $40.6 billion on AI projects by 2024 – according to Raconteur. This is expected to create mass opportunity for the pioneering businesses currently investing in AI development. Moving beyond the hype in existing media coverage, this post will uncover the reality behind what AI means for businesses today, in the near future, and beyond 2017.

Despite banks' simultaneous excitement and fear of artificial intelligence as perhaps one of the most transformative technologies for their business, they've been quieter about IBM's Watson. Watson is a cognitive technology and super-computer comprising AI that "learns" how to draw conclusions from data, natural language understanding – which allows it to read and understand unstructured data, like social media posts and digital photos – and a search engine that can comb through millions of data points in seconds. It holds enormous promise in the long term for banks, who hold troves of customer data they're constantly studying and using to create better customer experiences as well as improve operational efficiencies. "What a Watson could deliver to banks would be tools to ensure sales people are selling the right things to the right people at the right time," said Ryan Gilbert, a partner at Propel Ventures. "Wells Fargo probably wouldn't have an eight financial product sales challenge if it had a Watson," because Watson wouldn't have allowed such rules to be set for employees to follow.

Despite banks' simultaneous excitement and fear of artificial intelligence as perhaps one of the most transformative technologies for their business, they've been quieter about IBM's Watson. Watson is a cognitive technology and super-computer comprising AI that "learns" how to draw conclusions from data, natural language understanding – which allows it to read and understand unstructured data, like social media posts and digital photos – and a search engine that can comb through millions of data points in seconds. It holds enormous promise in the long term for banks, who hold troves of customer data they're constantly studying and using to create better customer experiences as well as improve operational efficiencies. "What a Watson could deliver to banks would be tools to ensure sales people are selling the right things to the right people at the right time," Gilbert said. "Wells Fargo probably wouldn't have an eight financial product sales challenge if it had a Watson," because Watson wouldn't have allowed such rules to be set for employees to follow.

A change in political leadership with Donald Trump's presidential victory and GOP control of Congress has raised expectation of policy shifts that could affect the regulatory compliance process. The incoming administration is promising to work to "dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation." This scenario would have plusses and minuses. On one hand, bank stocks are on the rise because of Trump's promise to lessen regulation. On the other hand, a complete dismantling of Dodd-Frank would mean that banks would have to overhaul the compliance processes that they have spent billions of dollars to put in place over the past six years.

UK bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has announced it will be rolling out an artificial intelligence programme called "Luvo" to support its human staff. Using artificial intelligence is not a new idea in financial services, with intelligent financial instruments being used to manage money on a daily basis, but Luvo is different in that it has been given a "human" personality. The idea behind this decision is to make the AI seem more personable, friendly and warm. At present, it is being used to help support human employees but the bank hopes to roll out the tech so that customers can interact with it directly. It is currently being used to answer basic queries like "my customer has lost their bank card, what steps do I need to take now?", which is rather banal, but as the tech develops it is likely to offer more in the future.

Just about every service industry--from retailers to restaurants to hotels--has developed some kind of robot to attend to your needs on the cheap. The latest effort in the banking world (there are already robotic bank receptionists in China and Japan) is to take the rote responses of bots to the next level, by adding a touch of human empathy. The Royal Bank of Scotland (paywall) plans to unveil its new artificial intelligence system, known as "Luvo," by the end of the year. The AI service, designed by IBM, will attend to customer banking needs through its mobile or online as a chatbot. It will function similarly to Siri, the iPhone virtual assistant that answers questions with a distinct voice and "personality."