Tayyib Parrish 
Finance executives ought to spend more time on high-added-value activities, in areas such as strategic planning, treasury operations, operational risk management and policy making, where data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) or robotic process automation can further add value.
Others might dread finance’s extinction at the hands of extreme automation; this won’t happen – or at least not in the near future – but it is likely to usher in new ways of operating, which will in turn require different skillsets and learning.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In the finance sector, especially, artificial intelligence is revolutionising processes in a wide variety of ways, enabling firms to deliver superior personalised customer experience, optimise the number and types of risks that they take on by adjusting their risk control mechanisms, as well as replacing or automating many manual and routine processes and tasks. AI can help to identify and avert cyber threats, necessary to safeguard financial security; it can also help to speed up the processing of trade finance and make better decisions through the use of predictive analytics. Yet their use is inevitably tethered to a range of issues, with compliance foremost among them. With regard to explainability, AI tools that identify complex connections among tens of thousands of variables to infer outcomes, may not always be able to articulate why or how they arrived at their decision, which in turn could lead to suspicions about bias or misuse.
Automation
Finance firms are facing a raft of challenges these days. Whether it is expanding revenue streams, reducing costs, dealing with industry reforms or managing the effects of increased global disruption, financial services firms have to rapidly adjust the way they conduct business if they want to stay competitive and remain relevant to businesses. But automation is the driving force behind changes in all of these factors and, at Automate, an international showcase of automation, robotics, vision and motion control technologies, we gained a glimpse of how cutting-edge automation solutions are transforming manufacturing around the world, and the way that companies operate as a whole. Whether you’re talking about artificial intelligence, tokenisation, cryptocurrency and pay-only systems, cybersecurity, or any of the other major themes of 2018, tech will continue to change finance. Here’s what you need to know.
Big Data
Big data is being used by finance departments to uncover market trends and gain an unfair advantage over their competitors; more and more cloud ERP and analytics solutions will be deployed to offer near-real-time reporting with less error-ridden results. Generative AI offers a universe of opportunity that could transform financial planning and investing in a way that could allow firms to adapt their products and services even more closely to each customer. Generative AI could be one of 2024’s most important trends to follow. The use of blockchain in servicing low- and middle-income populations represents a significant growth opportunity for the financial services sector In addition to these opportunities for growth, blockchain could finally overcome the inertia that has long afflicted the financial industry. With its potential to address some of the key inefficiencies plaguing the sector – such as settlements, cross-border transactions, latencies, and lack of transparency – blockchain would safely unleash new markets while dramatically reducing costs.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
The finance industry was probably the earliest customer for RPA. Conducting nitpicking (but critically important) back-office tasks such as filling in KYC forms and running credit checks can easily be done by RPA, away from the burdened employees who can, instead, focus on the really important things that comprise their work and those that bring in a return. In this case, an RPA process might first log into a legacy system to rank a portfolio of credit-dispute cases and compile reports for financial analysts while keeping regulatory filing deadlines at month-end. Implementation of embedded finance still has some ways to go, but by 2024 this should no longer be an issue. Embedded finance seeks to provide customers with flexibility in paying for purchases through cutting-edge applications, while also enabling dramatic reduction in bank costs.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Workplace
Generative al tools, powered by AI, will re-enter corporate agendas as productivity tools such as ChatGPT and Copilot will grow to be one of the most prominent trends of 2024. Generative AI enables enterprises to sell customised solutions to people – from financial planning and asset management to insurance services for business: As the business world faces constant change and economic uncertainty, finance executives need to do both: increase the top line and decrease the bottom line while maintaining resilience, all at the same time. How do the world’s most innovative finance leaders sort through all of these new technologies? One way to get to the answer is at Fortune’s Future of Finance summit.
Embedded Finance
This trend – consumers and businesses expecting their financial products to be a seamless part of their experiences – opens up the opportunity for nonfinancial service brands to capture customer needs by embedding solutions such as payments into their offerings. For example, ‘embedded finance’ slots purely financial functionality into apps or websites that were not originally for any purpose financial, by enabling payments in real time, quick credit decisions and the like. Enabling distributors with seamless experiences and helping them retain users, makes money for balance sheet providers and amplifies access to credit for users.
