Financial services professionals don’t need to fear Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, according to Astute Theory’s Robert Nisi.
The award-winning business banker and startup founder shares his thoughts on one of the most talked topics of 2023 on the FINSIA Podcast here
Robert - whose work sees him representing State and Federal governments on international trade missions – says professionals should use technology to enhance customer experience by improving trust with simple improvements.
“We really believe that businesses should look at their current processes and procedures and start to determine ‘what do we feel we would benefit from automating’,” he says.
“The belief is that with AI and machine learning it has to be this crazy, ridiculous, complex system and solution, but you can build an AI machine learning tool to know when to send an email across to your clients.”
It's that type of simplicity, that simple approach that is the real benefit, according to Robert.
Commenting on a financial advisor using a Deepfake of themselves, he thinks the technology still needs to be refined, adding ‘we're probably a good five, five to six years away from that technology being useful in the business space’.
With businesses in the financial service sector where trust is a really important factor, and there are regulation and compliance issues, the best use is looking at what can be done on a day-to-day basis to free up our advisors’ time.
“How can we free up the time of our staff to actually better service the client? That's where we feel the value is right now and today,” he says.
And will it leave to waves of job losses?
Not according to Robert.
“Technology will evolve and reposition staff into different areas. The whole purpose of AI machine learning in financial services isn't about replacing staff,” he says.
“It's about getting faster, more accurate results and answers back to clients so they can make better informed decisions.
“On a personal level, we still need to understand our clients - understand what they do.
“What clients will be demanding is if there's a change in the market, we want to know as soon as we possibly can.
“That's still in entails man hours, staffing. There's a wide range of things that will never actually move away from there.”
