Interest in ChatGPT, the chatbot platform developed by OpenAI, has drawn public attention to the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI). The financial world has also started to benefit from the benefits of chatbots. Artificial intelligence is used in the industry in many areas, from investment decisions to strategy creation. In addition, AI programs eliminate a large workload thanks to their data collection and report generation features. Bankers working in the sector will be able to spend more time on analysis instead of doing these hours-long tasks.
Major banks and other financial institutions now use chatbots to help assess credit risks, onboard customers and detect fraud. Additionally, artificial intelligence has begun to influence investment decisions. BlackRock, the world’s largest fund company, has reduced its reliance on stock pickers by relying on self-learning artificial intelligence in its exchange-traded funds business. Financial giant JPMorgan is leveraging AI to better cope with market fluctuations. The bank also funds one of Wall Street’s most ambitious artificial intelligence research programs.
In addition, artificial intelligence also makes the work of finance employees easier. The vast majority of a banker’s work consists of boring tasks that spend hours on end. For example, young financiers often spend hours preparing slide shows, editing a messy Excel sheet with millions of rows to look neat, and gathering information about the industry. “Most of the work financiers do is very mundane,” said a top-tier investment banking analyst who works on technology deals. “You’re doing random things in Excel, editing a document or putting logos in Powerpoint,” he says.
AI will usher in a ‘new era of productivity’ for investment banking, according to a recent study by consultancy firm Deloitte. According to a company report, front office employee productivity will increase by 35 percent by 2026.
In this way, the use of artificial intelligence in the financial sector has already begun. Tamara Bitticks, an executive at German Deutsche Bank, said that senior bankers will create the reports they need to prepare for customer meetings with chatbots. One of these reports, which provides information to bankers, usually takes a team of junior bankers a day or two to prepare, Bitticks said. Bitticks said this technology will enable young bankers to focus on developing more analytical skills and soft skills.
Peter Torrente, a partner at consultancy firm KPMG, said the use of AI will enable the next generation of young bankers to improve their analytical skills and increase their ability to understand data and derive strategy.
“It will allow young bankers to work at a higher level thanks to the reports prepared by technology,” Torrente said. But he added that this would also give bankers larger data sets to work with. “This will enable the banker to do more research and analysis,” Torrente said.
Additionally, AI applications such as ChatGPT bring a new feature to bankers. In today’s finance industry, knowing software codes is important for bankers. Bogdan Tudosa from Training The Street, which provides training for large companies, said that artificial intelligence can easily create these code drafts for bankers. While Tudose notes that bankers do not need to know code as much as a computer engineer, he states that they enable students to benefit from artificial intelligence in training.
Sources: Business Insider, Forbes