Banks hit an AI plateau
Generative AI is becoming entrenched in financial services, but it remains far from transformational and banks are yet to see it drive revenue.
So far the generative AI boom has pretty well tracked the Gartner Hype Cycle, with its wave of initial excitement, followed by the “trough of disillusionment”, the “slope of enlightenment” and finally the plateau of productivity.
Exactly where we are in the cycle more broadly is open for debate. But in financial services, those I’ve been speaking to and the research that's emerging suggest we’re well past the peak of expectations and, in some cases, the post-euphoric disillusionment, and we are now entering a more steady plateau of use.
In financial services, as I found at the Singapore Fintech Festival, there remain significant governance concerns related to AI. Central bankers are worried about “black box” outcomes, and investors such as BlackRock and Citi are noting that the need for human governance inevitably adds cost and eats away at some productivity benefits.
That’s something one of the major players in cloud and AI, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is finding, with financial services clients very aware of governance and also becoming more specific about where they’ll use AI.
