Almost 20 years ago, I was implementing a Fraud Management product for Telecom operators around the world. It included wireline long distance call operators as well as Mobile operators. The product created accumulators that triggered alerts when pre-determined criteria were met. For example: numbers of calls in the last hour/day, calls from two or more locations in a short period of time. However, we soon realized fraudsters were getting more creative. Implementing new accumulators and rules to combat them was not easy to achieve that quickly.

This is part of a series and introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) in the new ibook MindMeld: CEO & AI – Merging and Mental. The complete ibook can be found on iBooks (click on any image). Artificial intelligence (AI) or the term I will use knowledge technology (KT) is the application of machine systems to problems of human endeavor. For the CEO, the purpose is not necessarily to develop systems that replace humans, but to allow the use of systems that increase human effectiveness and efficiency. This book is not a "how to" or cookbook for "melding" AI into the CEO or corporate organization.

However you choose to define artificial intelligence, its use is becoming increasingly widespread in the financial services industry. Whether it's in the research and development of new trading strategies, analysis and management of risk, or assisting with regulatory and compliance functions, there are a growing number of use cases for AI and machine learning. The implications of this from an infrastructure perspective are significant, particularly for trading or investment firms that use AI to determine when, where, and how to trade. Harald Helnwein: I think that artificial intelligence can play – and will play – a major role in the financial services industry. We are very much focusing with our algos to move away from discretionary decision-making or "gut feel" or "shooting from the hip", towards algorithms that try to produce reproducible objective facts for trading decisions, and we've been using artificial intelligence for let's say over 10 years now, and basically machine learning for our filters.