Occasionally we like to take in some of the counterprogramming on artificial intelligence, so this week to lead of AI and Finance we’re going to mention some of the recent negative reporting on the technology.
Forbes and The Economist are up first with two similar articles—The Economist with “Artificial Intelligence Is Losing Hype” and Forbes with “Why Artificial Intelligence Hype Isn’t Living Up To Expectations.” Since Forbes is the one that isn’t hidden behind a paywall, we’ll start there. Both of these articles appear to be in response to recent research from Gartner that declared that generative AI, in particular, is at the peak of its “hype cycle” where expectations have far outrun reasonable hopes for return on technology investment.
However, most of the “hype” in the Forbes article written by contributor Sherzod Odilov is contained in the headline. Odilov’s point is that, not only have expectations for the benefits of AI risen sky-high, but as a result business leaders and technologists should take a measured approach to adopting AI, not that AI is all hype. Gartner’s research suggests that businesses are at least 2 to 5 years away from realizing the benefits of generative AI, not that AI itself is being overvalued.
Of more concern is an analysis of annual SEC filings from Arize, a machine learning observability platform. Arize found that one-in-five reports now mentions artificial intelligence. However, most of these mentions—by a more than two-to-one margin, discuss AI in the context of it being a competitive threat or other risk to their businesses rather than its benefits or the adoption of the technology itself. So “hype” in this context isn’t necessarily positive hype.
And another report, by the RAND Corporation, found that 4-in-5 AI projects fail—this is twice the rate of non-AI technology projects. Leading causes for failure include misunderstanding the technology, lack of data, lack of infrastructure and—believe it or not—a failure to identify a problem for the technology to solve caused by a zealous quest to find and implement the “latest and greatest technology.”
Gartner’s technology hype cycle is a curve defining how audiences react to new technologies over time. After a technology is introduced, interest quickly rises towards a hype peak, then just as quickly falls into a “trough of disillusionment” before rising again towards a new, productive equilibrium. The hope, then, is as the initial hype around AI and generative AI deflates, new, more productive applications for the technology will emerge.
Lets get to some AI headlines.
This week we have 16 AI and Finance headlines, including items from AlphaTrAI, TIAA, SMA Technologies, AI Risk, FICO and S&P Global Market Intelligence.
READ ON…
1. AlphaTrAI
AlphaTrAI, a provider of tech-enabled services for the wealth and asset management industries, announced the acquisition of Plymouth, MA-based Anchor Advisory Services (“Anchor”), a premier scheduling and sales management solutions provider for the financial services industry. The tech-enablement of Anchor’s business with the latest tools will expand opportunities for Anchor and its clients, enhancing the value proposition of both firms and driving growth of the company across the country.
This acquisition, which is part of AlphaTrAI’s ongoing growth strategy, underscores the firm’s commitment to driving innovation and efficiency in the financial services sector by providing customized front-line, tech-enabling solutions that enhance wealth and asset management industry’s ability to deliver personalized service to their clients.
2. Ant International
Ant International announced its participation in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Project Ensemble Sandbox, focusing on “Liquidity Management”, one of its four main themes. Launched in March this year, Project Ensemble is the HKMA’s wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project aimed at fostering the development of tokenization in Hong Kong.
The Project Ensemble Sandbox enables companies to research and test tokenization use cases including the settlement of tokenized monies and tokenized real-world assets, amongst others. Ant International will leverage its Whale platform to participate in the Sandbox and develop an innovative use case with its partners. Ant International’s Whale platform is a next-generation treasury management solution that utilizes blockchain technology, advanced encryption and artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency and transparency of fund movements.
Ant International will collaborate with partners Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (Standard Chartered Hong Kong) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) to develop a global liquidity management solution that allows banks to connect to and exchange their tokens, by leveraging its Whale platform. This will allow cross-border payments to be conducted around the clock in real time.
3. Artificial Intelligence Risk
Artificial Intelligence Risk, Inc. (AI Risk), a leader in AI governance, risk, compliance, and cybersecurity (AI GRCC) software, today announced a strategic partnership with Fynancial, a leading social financial platform for the wealth management industry. Through this collaboration, Fynancial will integrate AI Risk’s proprietary AIR-GPT technology into its platform, providing advisors with a secure and innovative AI-powered solution.
AIR-GPT offers a range of AI-driven features designed to streamline advisor workflows and boost productivity, replacing handfuls of other AI products on a single platform.
Across their platforms, AI Risk, Inc. recently introduced the ability for companies to create no-code AI agents that can link into SQL databases and any internal or external API. For example, AIR-GPT links into Outlook, Zoom, Teams, Hubspot and other popular CRMs, turning the AI into a command center for financial advisors and other professionals.
4. Concentric AI
Concentric AI, a leading vendor of intelligent AI-based solutions for autonomous data security posture management (DSPM), announced the industry’s first AI-based DSPM functionality that monitors user activity risk and remediates user-centric data security issues in on-premises data repositories such as Windows file shares and DELL Isilon environments.
With the launch, enterprises can now for the first time leverage AI-driven DSPM to monitor user activity; identify anomalous activity such as downloads, views, modifications, and deletions; and remediate those issues to prevent data loss. Concentric AI is the first company to extend AI-based DSPM functionality beyond discovery of all sensitive data – from PII/PCI/PHI to business confidential data to IP to financial information – and identification of risk from excessive permissioning, risky sharing, inappropriate entitlements, and wrong locations.
In addition, Concentric AI’s monitoring of user activity is augmented with risk alert creation, user notifications, and remediation actions to prevent data loss on large on-premises data repositories.
5. FICO
Global analytics software leader FICO introduced new innovations to FICO® Platform that improve real-time decision-making, at both speed and scale. The new enhancements help teams break down silos and more efficiently reuse models and decision assets to drive better business outcomes.
Updated FICO Platform Capabilities include Data Connection and Ingestion, Enterprise Optimization, Applied Analytics & ML, Intelligent Decisions and Digital Twins & Simulation.
FICO Platform empowers financial institutions and enterprises across the globe to improve decision-making processes, customer interactions, and risk management, while avoiding costly errors, with its end-to-end integration of data analytics, digital simulation, risk modeling, and artificial intelligence (AI).
6. FloQast
Global consulting firm Riveron announced it has entered into a partnership agreement with FloQast, an accounting automation platform. Riveron consulting professionals offer a full suite of solutions focused on the office of the CFO, M&A, and distress. This strategic partnership will further extend Riveron’s comprehensive offerings tailored for CFOs and accounting teams, particularly for transforming the record-to-report processes of clients. Using innovative technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), FloQast automates accounting workflows, reconciliations, variance analyses, and more.
By combining Riveron’s proven expertise in transforming financial processes with FloQast’s accounting automation platform, this alliance empowers accounting and finance professionals to focus on strategic analysis and insights, ultimately driving greater business value.
7. Fourcore Capital
Cardea Corporate Holdings Inc. (“Cardea”) today announced that it has acquired select technology and financial assets from Nobel Sustainability Capital Group (“NSCG”), a consortium of global investors led by Peter Nobel and Wu family members and has rebranded as Fourcore Capital (“Fourcore” or the “Company”). In connection with the transaction, NSCG has signed a binding agreement to contribute up to $25 million as an anchor investment in the Company’s planned capital raise.
The Company is led by Jordan Waring, Chairman of the Management Board and Group CEO, Neil Fillary, Group President and International CEO, and Peter Knez, Chairman of Fourcore’s Investment Committee and former co-Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock Fixed Income. Peter Nobel has been appointed Chairman of the Fourcore Board of Directors.
The assets acquired include technology intellectual property (IP) and licensing, as well as investment management funds and entities. The IP and licensing encompass capabilities across blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI), digital wallet and tokenization, and they will enable the Company to provide a comprehensive digital wealth and asset management offering. The investment management funds and entities enhance assets under management and fee-paying contracts, which will immediately increase the profitability profile of Fourcore.
8. Mitek Systems
Mitek Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MITK), a global leader in digital identity and fraud prevention, announces the expansion of their partnership with Alogent. Alogent will integrate Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender (CFD) into its web-based enterprise deposits automation solution, Unify.
According to the annual Federal Reserve Financial Services Survey, in the United States, forms of check fraud including forgery and counterfeiting account for 31% of all bank fraud. In fact, in 2023 check fraud losses surpassed $20 billion, and are expected to be even higher in 2024. With the evolution of technology, fraudsters have been able to leverage increasingly sophisticated methods like AI to create counterfeit checks, alter legitimate checks, and forge signatures. This rapid escalation in check fraud underscores the urgent need for more robust, real-time verification technologies, and Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender represents a significant advancement in check fraud detection.
Using a unique combination of patented imaging science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to analyze checks from all channels in real-time, one customer reported a reduction in losses of $16M after using CFD for a few months.
9. Moss Adams
Moss Adams, one of the largest accounting, consulting and wealth management firms in the nation, announced new artificial intelligence (AI) consulting services. Businesses looking to harness the power of generative AI and machine learning can tap into a team of professionals possessing first-hand experience and knowledge of how to effectively utilize the technology.
AI offers organizations the ability to accelerate processes, streamline workflows and empower teams. As AI technology advances and options grow, identifying realistic AI implementations that deliver value can be an overwhelming process for organizations. Moss Adams AI services provide a means through which businesses can tailor AI solutions to meet their unique objectives.
Moss Adams AI services include two offerings, one focused on generative AI and the other focused on machine learning. Through the firm’s generative AI services, businesses can create a central knowledge center that empowers employees to search, access and leverage organizational data quickly and safely. Clients gain augmented workflows that align with their IT stack and structure. Moss Adams works directly with organizations to identify use scenarios for generative AI, navigate change management, deliver end-user training and provide additional guidance that may be needed.
10. Rippleshot
CPI Card Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PMTS), a payment technology company providing a range of credit, debit and prepaid solutions, complementary digital solutions, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) instant issuance, is excited to announce a strategic relationship with Rippleshot to provide its fraud prevention services to CPI customers. An award-winning fraud prevention platform, Rippleshot leverages artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) automation and predictive analytics to detect and prevent credit and debit card fraud. With the addition of Rippleshot, CPI customers can more effectively prevent fraudulent events before they occur and reduce the frustrations that epitomize the fraud management experience.
Backed by an expansive data consortium of more than 5,000 financial institutions, Rippleshot’s fraud analytics platform identifies fraud patterns to generate intelligence and rules to proactively detect emerging risks and block incidents before they occur. It also allows financial institutions to block high-risk merchants and mitigate the impact of catastrophic data breaches.
With consistent use of the platform, Rippleshot clients reported up to a 35% decrease in fraud activity per year and identified 10 times more compromised incidents than average network alerts. They also experienced five times less disruption to customers’ transactions with Rippleshot’s risk score-based reissuance strategies. CPI is excited to offer financial institutions this new capability that complements its expanding, innovative solutions, including digital card and push provisioning services.
11. S&P Global Market Intelligence
S&P Global Market Intelligence today unveiled a comprehensive look into the current state and projected growth of the core publicly-traded companies within the technology and AI industry in the newest version of the Visible Alpha AI Monitor.
The AI Monitor includes consensus estimates across 66 publicly-traded U.S. technology companies. This data was aggregated by leveraging detailed sell-side analyst estimates and analysis of AI-exposed revenues, those revenue line items S&P Global Market Intelligence analysts have identified as likely to see growth from AI, to provide a snapshot of current and projected AI-related revenues for each company.
By analyzing AI-exposed revenues, the tool helps analysts, investment managers and corporate strategists pinpoint potential growth areas within artificial intelligence–critical for assessing AI’s potential to transform into measurable growth. As AI’s consumer and enterprise use-cases expand, the Visible Alpha AI Monitor will continue to track these developments helping professionals to uncover new growth opportunities or emerging leaders.
12. Sensedia
Sensedia has launched Fintech API Accelerator Platform, an agile, adaptive embedded finance API and integration solution, allowing fintechs to rapidly scale their ecosystem strategy and incorporate AI products and open banking/finance readiness into their services to drive revenue growth.
Fintech API Accelerator Platform offers everything a fintech needs to grow—Sensedia’s PCI-compliant platform, AI CoPilot, expert API services, a powerful Developer’s Portal, along with support for open banking compliance, and marketing—all at the price point competitors charge for just their base platforms.
Open finance offers fintechs opportunities, but they face growth and innovation roadblocks from regulatory and compliance uncertainty and resource constraints. Data aggregators may offer simple compliance, but fintechs managing multiple data sources, ecosystem integration and scaling needs require robust solutions that extend beyond aggregation. The Sensedia Fintech Accelerator allows fintechs to navigate regulatory challenges and avoid third-party strategies that push the compliance burden onto them. Fintechs can use the accelerator on its own or combine the platform with one or more aggregators. Sensedia, a global leader in delivering API solutions for companies adopting a more digital, connected, and open strategy, announced today’s launch as a cost-efficient solution that provides full API control, scalability, and adaptability to evolving standards.
13. SMA Technologies
SMA Technologies, the leading provider of automation solutions for financial services and the maker of OpCon workload automation and orchestration (WLA&O), is proud to announce the launch of Otto, an automation assistant integrated with OpCon in the cloud. Leveraging the power of AI technologies from Azure and OpenAI, Otto is designed to make life even easier for OpCon users.
Otto is introduced to cloud customers via the web-based OpCon user interface, Solution Manager, and equipped with a comprehensive knowledge base, which allows Otto to provide high-quality, conversational responses and perform automation tasks on users’ behalf.
14. Sompo
Sompo, a subsidiary of the company responsible for the insurance and reinsurance operations of Sompo Holdings Group outside of Japan, has formed a partnership with Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE: PLTR), a leading vendor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems for the modern enterprise. This initiative plans to invest over the next three years in a data integration and AI solution to drive digital transformation at the insurer, which is among the top five in the Corporate and Agribusiness Insurance segment in Brazil.
The contract builds on Palantir’s existing partnership with Sompo’s parent company, Sompo Holdings in Japan. It has paved the way for data operations platform, Palantir Foundry, along with Palantir’s Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP), to be used to support improved decision-making in key areas of Sompo’s business such as pricing, underwriting and risk management – delivering efficiency gains and faster response times for the insurer’s customers and partners.
Sompo’s investment in Palantir’s solutions reflects the company’s determination to enhance its program of digital transformation, incorporating solutions to optimize business performance. Central to that vision is the use of Data Analytics and AI to create intelligent assistants which can provide greater accuracy in pricing and operational efficiency, benefiting both insurers and customers.
15. TIAA
TIAA, the largest U.S. provider of lifetime income, today announced a strategic partnership with Accenture (NYSE: ACN) to accelerate the transformation of TIAA’s retirement recordkeeping capabilities and operations. The agreement capitalizes on the strengths of both organizations to provide next-generation technologies and enhanced recordkeeping to TIAA’s plan sponsor clients and their employees, and plan consultants.
Beginning in 2025, Accenture – a leading professional services company that helps businesses reinvent themselves using technology, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) – will support parts of TIAA’s recordkeeping operations, making them more efficient through automation and enhanced processes over time. TIAA will retain full responsibility for retirement plans and recordkeeping services, as well as hosting and safeguarding plan data on its platforms. TIAA also will continue to be responsible for all aspects of relationships with plan sponsors, their employees, and plan consultants.
Plan sponsors and consultants will continue to work with their existing TIAA relationship management and consultant relations teams. Over time, the partnership will result in new digital capabilities and AI-enabled tools for TIAA relationship managers, enabling them to provide enhanced service for plan sponsors. Plan consultants will see improvements that include an elevated digital experience and expanded reporting capabilities with access to data and insights that can be used across their practice.
16. Total Expert
Total Expert, the FinServ leader in customer engagement software, has added automatic life milestone updates to contact records to enrich the interactions customer-facing teams have with their clients. The updated customer profile fields will allow financial institutions to use future intent indicators to identify life milestone opportunities in their database—like getting married or starting a family. The constant enhancements to customer profiles using Life Events will allow users to target and engage customers to scale personalized interactions and marketing in the moments that matter.
As part of the Total Expert summer platform release, financial institutions can drive more targeted opportunities for their lenders through reporting and marketing automation capabilities. This data-driven approach can be scaled across the organization, boosting marketing ROI and driving long-term growth. As an example, lenders can quickly pull targeted contact lists based on specific life milestones and build Total Expert Journeys to make timely and hyper-relevant connections with customers and prospects at scale.
Customer Intelligence Life Events is the first in a series of customer profile enrichments that use AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to pull valuable new signals from customer data. Going well beyond the capabilities of a conventional CRM, Total Expert automatically populates these new signals and intent indicators into customer profiles in real time. It immediately connects them to its purpose-built workflows for building targeted lists and driving marketing automation.
