The rapid spread of generative artificial intelligence has had a much more measurable impact on the financial services sector across Canada.
But the technology itself appears to be spreading faster than many banks can keep up. According to a new survey by Digital Services and Consulting Infosys, almost 90% of financial services companies still lack a comprehensive enterprise-wide AI strategy.
The title, “Why, What, How Financial Services Companies Become AI-First,” reports from Infosys and HFS research highlight the need for many financial companies to “adopt a close-up global enterprise-wide AI strategy.”
Infosys data shows that the top goal for two-thirds of banking and financial services companies is to increase their ultimate productivity. But are they going the right way?
Banks are investing heavily in AI, the report says that AI budgets will rise 25% this year and lead 16% of the technology budget, but rarely in “strategically meaningful ways.”
Without AI’s “strategic alignment” in broader business strategies, the report assumes fragmented efforts are being engulfed in individual business lines and geographic silos.
To maximize the value of the enterprise as a top-down framework with clear guidance from C-Suite leadership, combined with bottom-up execution driven by domain experts within each business function, is considered essential in reports.
Such an integrated approach harnesses AI opportunities through deployment methods that drive strategic priorities for enterprises.
“While many basic needs are addressed in the current funding and investment cycle, BFS leaders must take AI governance and AI talent into consideration to enable true scale,” commented Phil Fersht, CEO of HFS Research. “AI governance must be defined as part of an enterprise-wide AI strategy and supported across functions.”
The path ahead may be obvious in the direction of fintech, but obstacles to successful AI adoption remain. The report highlights data quality and access, security and privacy, and skilled talent as the three biggest obstacles.
“To maximize the potential of AI, our leadership teams need to remove obstacles through strong AI governance practices,” believes Dennis Gada, global head of banking and financial services at Infosys.
“The road to AI-First is paved with a variety of challenges,” admits Fersht.
Still, according to Gaia, the effort is worthy of a reward.
“The future of work is AI-First,” he said.
