AI will transform finance but also exacerbate risks

Subject

AI prospects in the financial sector

Significance

The scope of artificial intelligence (AI) in the financial sector is expanding, fuelled by natural language processing. AI will make trading and price execution faster and more efficient. It is capable of enforcing regulation efficiently and accurately, and could also write it. However, the use of AI in investment management will prove more difficult, and could heighten risks.

Impacts

• Machine learning needs access to large datasets, keeping large firms ahead unless initiatives enable data sharing, as the EU plans.
• Mass-market retailers with existing client data and relationships are well placed to build market share in banking and insurance.
• Creative and client-facing tasks will rise in law, medical and finance roles but documentation tasks will fall; skills will have to adapt.
• If investors trust that AI has crushed crisis risks, a vicious circle of moral hazard may ensue.