Alice Chambers |
Artificial intelligence was the focus of several sessions on the first day of Sibos 2023, with speakers discussing how organisations can use it responsibly to improve workforce productivity and more.
“Every organisation needs to lean into accountability,” said Jacqueline O’Flanagan, financial services lead at Microsoft Canada, during a panel discussion on understanding the reality of AI’s reach with executives from Euro Banking Association, HSBC, Kove and RBC. The panel discussed the importance of regulatory frameworks and how generative AI can be applied to various use cases to improve financial services operations, such as for sales prompts, combatting fraud, culminating pitchbooks and across contact centres.
“Generative AI allows you to find the limits of your system and to identify challenges that need to be overcome,” said Nadya Hijazi, global head of wholesale digital channels at HSBC. “There’s a lot of data that can be used to understand the sentiment of a caller, which in turn can be used to improve our help desk technology.”
Technology and banking leaders discussed the potential reach of AI in a panel discussion titled ‘Beyond the buzzwords’
Meanwhile on the Microsoft booth, Daragh Morrisey, director of AI at Microsoft worldwide financial services, revealed how Azure OpenAI is improving productivity in the workplace. He showcased how US-based financial services firm Moody's is using Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft Teams to provide its employees with client data ahead of meetings. Plus, Nvidia’s global vice president of financial services Malcolm deMayo spoke about how banks can establish an enterprise AI capability that serves all lines of business in Microsoft Azure, which is powered by Nvidia. “Large language models will make humans more productive and generative AI allows us to make data-based decisions quickly and effectively,” he said.
Microsoft’s Daragh Morrisey covered the power of generative AI via Microsoft Copilot at Sibos
Furthermore, the impact of AI on humanity was debated in a ‘Contrarian views’ session titled ‘AI is the future… or not?’. In this session, the University of Washington’s Scott David, Cindy Gordon from AI solution provider Saleschoice and Jared Bielby, a data and analytics analyst working for the City of Edmonton, Alberta, fought for and against the view that “AI is not an existential threat to humanity”.
Cindy Gordon, CEO of Saleschoice, said: “We’re in the caveman stage of AI right now. AI is not an existential threat but is in fact an opportunity for us to find the answers to questions that we may have not even thought to ask. The only thing that’s going to save humanity is AI.”
Gordon also argued that because of AI, banking and insurance will become more heavily regulated. “There will be continued conflict with AI regulations and the industry will become more responsible as a result of this,” she said.
The panel reached a neutral conclusion about whether AI is an existential threat to humanity, considering the implications of self-regulatory structures, the effect of AI on digital literacy and its impact on the evolution of humanity.
Technology Record is at Sibos 2023, covering the latest news from Microsoft and its partners. Find out more here.