Meta's latest artificial intelligence model called Voicebox is a customized text to speech product that can mimic any specific voice of your choosing.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to grow and develop, so does its application across multiple fields. From healthcare and education to entertainment and sports, AI has made a tremendous impact on society. One particular industry that AI is influencing heavily is finance and banking. The application of artificial intelligence and machine learning in finance has led to safer and more convenient ways to bank. This technological advancement is changing the world at large in many ways you might not expect.

As we become accustomed to using advanced technology in our daily lives, we also expect seamless transactions in other aspects like shopping and banking. For more sensitive processes involving money, the industry has begun using artificial intelligence to fight fraud. In fact, it is expected that AI will be the next big thing in finance, changing the way we do everyday transactions. After all, this industry, with all the data it carries, the transaction history needs a "middle man" to ensure that there's no fraudulent activity occurring. With the help of AI, banks are able to detect suspicious activities and prevent attackers from doing any more damage.

The banking sector has witnessed multiple paradigm shifts, traditionally occurring in parallel with emergent technology trends. Technologies that were previously at the forefront of banking transformations are now standard issue by modern banks, with the most notable examples taken for granted by millions of customers on a daily basis. The advent of credit cards and magnetic strip technology arrived during the 1960's and reached mass adoption during the 1970's. At the same time, the first ATM was installed in 1967 in London, easing customers' access to their funds, and simplifying back office processes. However, the most major transformation to date was the introduction of online banking.

Technology has infiltrated our lives, and the wave of digital disruption has impacted various industries. The finance sector is no exception. Since the industry is becoming more complex, relying on traditional methods is no longer enough. In fact, it can do your business more harm than good. To make the sector more efficient, financial technology, or Fintech, provides financial institutions and professionals with new tools to handle some of the most complex tasks.

'Please enter your username and password', a request so common we hardly notice it; from online shopping to online banking. In recent years we've become so accustomed to biometric logins and two-step authentication models when it comes to passwords; entering the same old user ID password that we've had for years. In fact, 89 per cent of people use the same one or two passwords for everything. But is this the optimal security option for consumers? With artificial intelligence (AI), this could all come to an end.

Regardless of available budget or staffing, there are steps your institution can take to start learning how voice will play a part in your digital strategy. Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!In 2017, we saw large institutions such as Ally Bank, U.S. Bank, and Capital One begin to engage consumers through Amazon Alexa devices, empowering their respective consumers to get fast answers about their finances, receive affordability insights, and pay bills, all via voice. Yet, just because these large institutions made the strategic investment in voice channels, should all financial organizations? This is a great question, but what about the value of simply learning about new voice channels? Waiting to learn about, and experiment with, these channels until the market has fully adopted them may put you too far behind to catch up with the pace of voice adoption by consumers.

The world of online banking is heading towards a digital reality where questions are no longer answered by humans, but by computers. In the last year alone the number of banks focusing on developing technology to create realistic conversations between humans and robots has risen exponentially. As chatbot technology gets smarter, thanks to machine learning techniques, banks are developing new ways to interact with customers, that can understand human emotions and recognise intentions, all whilst engaging in conversation. For the development of truly intelligent virtual assistants and chatbots, deep learning and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are key. Adam McMurchie, SME Technician Subject Matter Expert at Lloyds Banking Group, has a good understanding of where the gaps and challenges are currently within deep learning, with a background in Financial Services, Technological Development and Neurocomputing.

Back in the 90s, I used to design automated systems to help pilots fly civil aircraft. Today, this would probably be called designing artificial intelligence (AI) or smart systems or something similar. One of the big questions for us back then was deciding how much responsibility to give to the aircraft to fly, manage failures and generally make and execute decisions, as well as how much to leave to the pilots. One of the hot issues was whether the pilot or smart systems should have the final call when things got tough. Controversially, in several cases, authority was given to the aircraft because the aircraft could manage specific situations better.