Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly important player and is transforming and strengthening many sectors of our ecosystem, including the financial and insurance ones. We asked Francesco Basciani, data scientist of IBM and expert in the subject, what could be the possible developments in fintech and which new job opportunities could arise. Basciani is also one of the mentors in our mentorship program offered for free to the startups of the community. If you want to know more click here. But first, read the interview!
AI is developing fast but there is still great unexpressed potential. What are the biggest challenges for “unlocking the potential of AI” in 2020?
The application of AI models within companies is bringing benefits in terms of process automation, improved customer service and the discovery of previously unknown insights. The main ingredient to make profitable and proficient use of AI, is certainly the most important data. The more data you will own and the more you will be able to make it consistent and easily usable, the more you will be able to develop a data-driven approach within the company.
A limit we find today, however, is the non-applicability of AI in strongly regulated contexts where, in many core processes, the objective cause-effect relationship of the phenomena is required. This is one of the themes of the future: to make AI explainable. If we overcome it, there will be a great development of Augmented Intelligence.
What problems does the AI solve in the financial world today?
The application of AI in the financial and insurance sector is also allowing to improve the quality of services to the customer and reduce time and costs through better management of risk and fraud. The fields of application are many, from capital trading to fraud detection. On the latter, many traditional players are opening up to the use of increasingly innovative techniques to anticipate and discover new fraudulent patterns. This is a great challenge for the future.
And, which ones could it resolve, or contribute towards resolving, in the future?
In general, the fields of applicability of IA are numerous. With the advent of the 5G, the explosion of the IoT and increasingly simple access to large computational resources, the problems that the AI can help to solve are many and varied. The most important issue will surely be understanding the role of AI in the process of improving services such as Robo Advice, anti-money laundering or fraud detention (increasingly advanced).
This evolution also has an impact on new job opportunities. How do the profiles that companies have to choose with the necessary skills have to change?
Surely soft skills are becoming increasingly important in the labor market because of the high speed with which technologies are changing. For this reason, a strong analytical ability will be increasingly required, together with a strong curiosity and a great ability to seize the opportunities that innovation offers.
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