Advances in artificial intelligence, particularly generative artificial intelligence, offer tremendous opportunities for the financial and banking sector to harness data, automate tasks and improve productivity while reducing costs.
A study by Alteryx, which specializes in the field of artificial intelligence for business data analysis, reveals that financial services and banking institutions are at the forefront of artificial intelligence policies within their structure.
Entitled “Defining the Enterprise of the Future”, its report highlights the cautious approach taken by an overwhelming majority of 91% of industry professionals, in favor of regulations and standards governing the use of AI and technology (GenAI).
Conducted among 2,800 IT decision makers, data analysts and business leaders, this survey reveals that these financial services and banking organizations are taking initiative as they address this legal gap.
Doubts about answers produced by AI
The majority (86%) already have AI security, ethics and governance policies in place to ensure the sustainable success of their business, beating the global average across all industries by 11%.
The focus on data management could come from a variety of sources:
- a heightened sense of skepticism about the benefits of artificial intelligence
- the highly regulated nature of the sector
- the expectation that they will be affected by the future European law on artificial intelligence.
However, this report reveals that 80% of them express reservations about using AI-generated answers, compared to 73% across all sectors.
In addition, industry players financial and banking are less optimistic about the impact of artificial intelligence on business: only 37% believe it will have a positive effect.
Damage to the attractiveness of the workplace (42%), damage to brand reputation (41%) and loss of intellectual property and data (36%) were identified as threats in case of bad use of artificial intelligence.
The main risks associated with the lack of an AI policy mainly lie in the legal and ethical consequences (49%). This concern is shared by 92% of financial services and banking firms, for whom AI policies are key to integrating responsible AI into businesses.
Proactive approach
Transparency and clarity (54%), accountability (52%) and inclusive growth, sustainability and well-being (34%) were listed among the main ethical aspects shaping policy development in the sector.
As a result, 44% of financial services and banking professionals foresee the emergence of new roles focused on data ethics and privacy. In fact, this financial and banking sector also stands out for its leadership in adopting security, ethics and governance strategies.
The most widely adopted approaches include multi-factor authentication (MFA) for access to systems, applications and data (44%), implementing integrated security in the development process (42%) and adopting a trustless security model/Secure Access Service Edge architecture (40%).
Regular security awareness raising for employees (40%) and robust governance frameworks that define security roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes are also seen as increasing priorities (35%).
In conclusion, in order to counter new threats hackers and reduce the risks of accidental disclosure of sensitive data, the sector must take a proactive approach.