How is AI Driving a Data Revolution in Fintech Industry?

Ratnadeep: Some of those are very good things. Some of those are alarming statistics but I’ll tell you what Emmanuel, this is a great segment for my next question. Everyone knows what the buzzword is, like ChatGPT, large language models, which you just touched upon in your previous answer- generative AI. Now speaking of these cutting-edge technologies, what’s your take on how do you see them shaping or probably even disrupting the industry you are deeply involved in, which is the financial technology industry.

Emmanuel: My take is, I always look at technology, not just in the financial services but other sectors as wel.l I think we have to remember that technologies are tools to enable and improve productivity. One of the problems I think with ChatGPT and AI generally is, over relianced people start to believe that everything that it says is true. But AI is a tool; it’s not a mind. 

You can’t therefore just get a contract drafted. And let’s say, that’s everything. I don’t need to apply my professional responsibility. So I think that is something that we have to definitely have to think about and bear in mind. For me broadly, to answer your question, AI will enable us as a business to stay relevant. That’s the important thing.

How do we use the technologies to stay relevant so that we can provide insights or improve user experience that will benefit our customers and enable us to stay at the forefront of their user expectations? So I’ve touched upon what some of the specifics that I think might happen. But all of those are about staying relevant. Improving automating processes, improving productivity and all of that is geared towards enhancing our user expectations and staying at the forefront of those.

Ratnadeep: That’s a better competition. Whatever you do absolutely depends on that. Whether we’re getting better or whether we are ahead of the competition. Essentially in technology right now, when I talk about AI, it has its own set of questions on ethics as well. You are talking about regulations, you are talking about compliances, what are your thoughts on ethics in AI, specifically in usage of AI?

Emmanuel: Well, let’s go back to the risks. I touched upon automating. 300 million or potentially 300 million people could lose their jobs, and if your job is to make a data-driven decision from content on a piece of paper, AI will threaten that. If you’re talking to a human being from a script, AI will potentially that. AI will threaten a number of jobs in different vertical sectors. 

Estimates are, it could lead to some 300 million jobs. But what we see from technology and our experience of technology that it creates up other opportunities. There are opportunities and other jobs that will be created from this new technology. It’s interesting that earlier this year, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, spoke about efforts by himself and his company to support universal basic income. So the idea behind the universal basic income is that governments would give every person a tax-free flat amount of income, regardless of their wealth or employment.

Let’s see what happens in that case, whether that comes to fruition. Here are privacy issues such as facial recognition. For me, one of the biggest risks is the altered reality, deep fake. yAI can generate this information to alter your viewpoint. So apparently ,it takes only three or four seconds of hearing somebody’s voice to reconstruct it. 

So you hear cases of where AI is cloned. A young person’s voice, teen girl’s voice, for one million dollar ransom. I think ethically, morally, there are all sorts of issues to consider. There are issues; algorithmic biases have been trained on a large language models, being trained on large sets of data that will have biases. And again, as I’ve spoken about over reliance, I think there are lots of issues. There are even environmental issues to consider as well. 

When you talk about ‘Where is all of our data stored and housed in data centers around the world?’ It is stored in data centers and apparently, the cost of training a large language model with all of that data is equivalent to the same amount of carbon footprint as 25 flights from New York to London. 

So I think there are lots of environmental issues, ethical issues. How do you solve those? I believe there is an event happening in London in October where they’re going to talk about AI and how to solve ethical and those issues, risks, and how do we manage AI. It’s a huge challenge. And I think it’s a huge problem that’s made even more difficult because everybody has it now. 

Ratnadeeep: Let’s deviate. Every time you talk about your guest lecture at the prestigious institutes like Warwick Business School and the IESEG School of Management, it must be really enlightening. What are the core messages you try to convey to students about AI’s role in today’s financial sector?

Emmanuel: That’s a very good question. For me, it’sabout thinking where AI and other technologies will play a role. It’s about ensuring that you use technology in the right way and ensure that it adds value to your business, and adds value to your customers. As I’ve said technology, and ChatGPT, and others, with over what 100 million users in the first few months with their tools.

Ratnadeep :So you can’t just rely on that tool. It is there to enhance productivity but I think you still need the human mind to obviously check it to ensure that it’s working in the right way. Don’t just delegate all of your responsibility to that tool which gets things wrong. And then secondly, think about how you’re integrating that technology. Think about what you’re using it for and as I’ve said before, how do you use that technology to stay relevant?

Emmanuel: For me, the emphasis like all technology when it’s come out over the years is what can I use it for how is it going to enhance my business and how is it going to enhance my customer and customer journe and help me stay ahead of the competition? So those are really the points that I try and emphasize when it comes to tapping into AI’s potential within the fintech industry. 

Ratnadeep: Going forward many are probably working on their own ideas or already have an idea, and they’re looking to build a product or are building a product. What’s sage advice can you offer? How can they best harness AI to revolutionize their, probably not just product making process, but also kind of decision making process?

Emmanuel: What sage advice can I offer? Well I’m not sure I can offer sage advice. I can talk about my or our experiences. I think the first thing you have to do is understand your IT landscape. What are the pain points, what are the gaps, how you’re integrating AI into your tech stack so that it’s cost effective and adds value? You need to understand what are the costs involved in integrating an AI solution and getting the right expertise involved. 

So you do set up things in the right way and integrate it. How do you integrate? Just for example, generative AI within your existing tech stack and develop a robust architecture so one understand the areas where it’s going to examine the financial costs, the usage, the vendor costs. Do you need to upskill or reskill any members of your staff or your team? Where you’re going to integrate it? Get the right people on board to help you do that integration. 

There are all sorts of things to consider with regards to that integration. You did not just integrate your data, but obviously the tech solution, the tech article, architecture. And then I think, one of the key things, especially for large businesses is, you need to clearly, define and communicate what’s your company-wide policy on using AI. What are those? What can I access? What are those guidelines to use these tools effectively and safely? 

Can I take a piece of company data inputted into ChatGPT and say produce me this? So you need to define and determine what those company policy guidelines are. Maybe you can’t take that data, maybe you can use it in a certain way. But I know some law firms that specifically aren’t using ChatGPT and are thinking about, ‘well how do we build our own so we can manage our own data and not just pass that on to a ChatGPT or a third party?’ How can you stay ahead of the competition? 

Ratnadeep: Now as a key leader (CEO) at The Money Cloud, how do you ensure that your team stays ahead of the curve in this dynamic AI-driven data world? What’s your secret to maintaining the Competitive Edge in this ever-evolving domain?

Emmanuel: I think when it comes to any technology, upskilling, reskilling, constantly learning, traveling around the world, seeing what people are doing and what companies are doing in different sectors that they’re all, there’s always things to learn from people’s experiences and companies experiences in different sectors that may be applicable to our sector in our business. 

So for me, I always encourage our staff to learn to generate ideas to. We think about internally every month or every couple of months things that we’ve seen, things that might be applicable. How can we use those? Are they relevant? Are they not relevant? So in this world of fast music, fast moving technology, where six months, nine months ago, we didn’t have ChatGPT, how do you keep abreast of that? It’s the challenge and that means that you stay relevant and your business is always relevant for customers need. 

Ratnadeep: So yes for me, it’s continuity. I can see a few books in your room. I don’t know whether you have already read them or are currently reading, but can you suggest a few books for our listeners, especially in terms of technology or technology adoption or ethics in technology in any particular topic related to technology, which might help our listeners? Can you suggest a few books, or probably even podcasts, or videos which you watch generally or actively listen?

Emmanuel: I am reading a book which is a platform strategy, which is specifically about platforms, by Laure Claire Reillier and Benoit Reillier, which is very insightful. What else? Specific podcasts- Lex Friedman does a podcast. I’d listen to stuff that Sam Altman says, CEO of OpenAI. I can’t think of any others but yes there’s plenty of stuff out there to listen to read. Just find something that appeals to you and greatly so you can learn it from.

Ratnadeep: And here we have it. I think it’s a whirlwind tour of the year guided by none other than Emmanuel, a leading expert in the field of cross-border payments. His insights into the transformation of the financial landscape integration of AI and the balancing act between innovation and risk have been nothing short of enlightening. Emmanuel’s leadership dedicated to client-centric solutions and ability to forge a strong corporate partner Innovation ecosystem stands as a testament to the incredible potential that lies at the nexus of technology and finance. 

Ratnadeep: Thank you Emmanuel for sharing your wisdom and experience with us today and thank you listeners for joining us on this inspiring episode of “Leader’s Perspective”. Whether you are an industry expert or just curious about the future of finance, I hope you leave with a newfound appreciation for the complex dynamic world of fintech. Stay tuned for more thought-provoking conversations and until next time, keep challenging the status quo and keep leading with perspective. Thank you.

Emmanuel: Thank you very much, Ratnadeep. It’s a pleasure to be here.