Financial services companies are becoming hooked on artificial intelligence, using it to automate menial tasks, analyse data, improve customer service and comply with regulations. About half of financial services and insurance firms globally already use AI, according to a 2019 study by research group Forrester, and that number is expected to grow as new uses are found for the technology. "We are only scratching the surface of the potential that AI has for the industry," says Katherine Wetmur, Morgan Stanley's international chief information officer. Financial institutions already use AI to analyse stock market data and machine learning to improve fraud detection -- technology that Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, last year said saves the US bank $150m annually. Another US bank, Morgan Stanley, also uses AI for fraud detection, virtual assistants for customer inquiries and for "sentiment analysis", which measures how positive or negative an analyst is about a company stock.

In a 1967 McKinsey Quarterly article, "The manager and the moron," Peter Drucker noted that "the computer makes no decisions; it only carries out orders. It's a total moron, and therein lies its strength. It forces us to think, to set the criteria. The stupider the tool, the brighter the master has to be--and this is the dumbest tool we have ever had."1 1.Peter Drucker, "The manager and the moron," McKinsey Quarterly, 1967. After years of promise and hype, machine learning has at last hit the vertical part of the exponential curve.

Intelligent machines inform better, faster decisions. They enable managers in insurance to shift their focus to activities that call for decidedly human traits such as complex thinking and higher-order reasoning. Providing guidance and recommendations, machines complement managers' expertise, experience and ethics, as well as their ability to experiment and innovate. The overwhelming majority of insurance managers believe machines will make them more effective and their work more interesting. However, the survey also revealed a lack of trust in machines among managers that might affect an organization's ability to make the most of cognitive computing.