Businesses must be transparent and fair to maintain trust and mitigate reputational risks.
Financial services firms should have a clear governance structure to track progress and compliance with their artificial intelligence (AI) strategies to ensure the technology truly transforms their operations, according to a KPMG Philippines official.
They should also train their employees in AI before deciding to extend it to the entire organization, Emmanuel Bonoanvice president and chief operating officer of KPMG RG Manabat & Co., the Philippine member firm of KPMG International, said at the recent Asian Banking and Finance Forum in Manila.
The use of generative AI (genAI) solutions in financial services raises governance and regulatory compliance issues. Institutions must ensure transparency and fairness in the decision-making process of their genAI systems while respecting the rules.
Bonoan said organizations should experiment with AI responsibly. “Dip your toes in the waters of AI (and) don’t adopt it wholesale. Find sexy use cases to start playing with AI.
He also said that companies should have accurate and reliable data before creating AI models. “Running AI on inaccurate data can cause serious problems, put your reputation at risk, and cause regulatory authorities to put pressure on you. »
He said a structured testing and validation process is essential to continuously evaluate the results of AI systems in specific use cases. “You identify positive outcomes and benefits and resolve problems. »
He said teams should have the technology and capacity to integrate AI into existing processes to achieve the best results while ensuring people have the right skills.
AI strategies must also be communicated clearly.
“Confirm that you have the right people and the right strategy, and that this is communicated both to key stakeholders and across the business,” he said.
“For example, when we issue an AI-assisted opinion, we put a disclaimer stating that certain parts of that opinion were generated using AI. However, a real person looked at this and made sure it was accurate.
Bonoan said a number of organizations were using AI to deliver new services and improve back-office processes. According to KPMG’s Global Technology Report, six in ten global technology leaders in the financial services industry believe genAI and machine learning could help them achieve their near-term goals.
He said financial services, wealth management and banking should not feel pressured to adopt AI just for the sake of it.
“Risk processes are a great use case for artificial intelligence,” Bonoan said. “Understand the business outcome you want to achieve, then think about how you can use genAI to help solve those problems.” »
He said management should look for big, enterprise-level impacts rather than focusing on siled use cases. This should give a company the opportunity to rethink how it runs its business.
He said young workers are the driving force behind innovation, which is essential to staying in business.
“I’m fortunate to be part of an organization where the average age is 28 to 32,” he said. “That’s why everyone is looking for innovative products and processes. »
“It’s worth taking a step back from the hype to really understand what genAI is, what it can do, and the risks and opportunities involved.” This is a key part of society, where people and machines can work together,” he added.