Artificial intelligence (AI) is not just a buzzword, but a valuable tool in the fintech sector that helps clients extract value from vast amounts of data, said an industry insider at the just-concluded Swift International Banker's Operation Seminar 2024 (Sibos 2024) in Beijing.
This year's Sibos was held from Monday to Thursday, marking the first time the Chinese capital has hosted this annual event.
Over 10,000 participants from more than 150 countries and regions gathered to discuss a wide range of topics, including payments, digital assets, trade financing, AI, and sustainable finance.
The integration of AI with financial services was one of the most discussed topics at the event. David Runacres, president of the Asia-Pacific region at leading global fintech company Broadridge, emphasized that the firm is leveraging AI to deliver high-value, high-speed services.
"I think what's changing is now people are starting to understand what they can do with AI. It's not just a sexy search engine anymore. We've got a lot of projects with inside the firm where we're actually taking AI and solving actual problems with it. Whereas it is an experiment at the moment, it does show us being able to do something that provides both high value and high speed to market for us and our customers. So I think that's what's changing with fintech in terms of AI is that it's becoming something actually useful and not just a buzzword," said Runacres in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).
Runacres especially highlighted the critical role of AI in managing vast datasets to reduce costs.
"A lot of our customers have extremely large data requirements. They are looking at terabytes and petabytes of data to do their business, looking at historical data about trades. And these aren't things that most customers can manage themselves. They need to manage those in very large cloud-based environments and be able to use software, things like Snowflake, to be able to get through that data and derive value from that. I think a lot of the problems that our customers come to us with today is how can they derive value at a massive data without costing the millions and millions in management and storage of that data," he said.