AI & Finance™ | News for the Week Ending 9/20/24

Ai For Alpha, a pioneering fintech specialized in AI investment strategies, announces the launch of its latest innovation: the “Risk Off” CTA strategy. 

Ai For Alpha has developed a cutting-edge technology called Decoding, which enables the creation of replication portfolios for both traditional and alternative strategies, including CTAs, Global Macro, and hedge funds global benchmarks. These portfolio models are implemented by major money managers and banks’ QIS desks to create market access investment strategies. 

The Ai For Alpha “Risk Off” CTA strategy utilizes the Decoding technology to replicate a CTA managers benchmark while dynamically adjusting the allocation to reduce the exposure to “risk on” assets, resulting in a more defensive profile. 

The drive to develop more powerful AI capabilities will require significant infrastructure investment to support it. Today, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), Microsoft, and MGX announced the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership (GAIIP) to make investments in new and expanded data centers to meet growing demand for computing power, as well as energy infrastructure to create new sources of power for these facilities. These infrastructure investments will be chiefly in the United States fueling AI innovation and economic growth, and the remainder will be invested in U.S. partner countries. 

This partnership will support an open architecture and broad ecosystem, providing full access on a non-exclusive basis for a diverse range of partners and companies. NVIDIA will support GAIIP, offering its expertise in AI data centers and AI factories to benefit the AI ecosystem. GAIIP will also actively engage with industry leaders to help enhance AI supply chains and energy sourcing for the benefit of its customers and the industry. The partnership will initially seek to unlock $30 billion of private equity capital over time from investors, asset owners, and corporates, which in turn will mobilize up to $100 billion in total investment potential when including debt financing. 

The founders of the partnership bring together leading global investors BlackRock, GIP, and MGX, an artificial intelligence and advanced technology investor, with funding as well as expertise from Microsoft. GAIIP combines deep understanding of infrastructure and technology to drive efficient scaling of data centers, with energy, power, and decarbonization investment capabilities for related enabling infrastructure for AI. 

BlueFlame AI, a leading provider of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) solutions for the alternative investment management industry, today announced the launch of Nexus. The innovative AI-powered solution is designed to transform the way firms find, analyze, and report on the unstructured data contained within their various documents. 

Nexus addresses the critical challenge of information overload in the investment management industry by intelligently organizing unstructured data from management and board decks, CIMs/CIPs, presentations, contracts, reports, and other documents into a centralized, structured, and easily searchable database. The solution displays this data in a table to help investment management teams view, track, and access unstructured data more efficiently so they can quickly surface actionable insights and make more informed business decisions. 

Nexus supports a wide range of document types, and can automatically convert board decks, CIMs/CIPs, earnings calls, equity research, expert network transcripts, ISDAs, NDAs, resumes, teasers, and vendor contracts into an organized and searchable table. 

To redefine the financial industry’s conventional approach to asset servicing (the range of administrative and operational functions that support the management and maintenance of investment assets), global Fintech leader Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. (NYSE: BR) is introducing a ground-breaking integration of several asset servicing functions into a single, real-time, multi-currency platform across capital markets, wealth management, asset management and global custody. This innovation transforms traditionally fragmented activities and extends well beyond existing industry asset servicing solutions to include tax and performance reporting, cost basis, proxy, class actions, reclaims and a truly global custody platform. The streamlined solution enhances automation, drives straight-through processing benefits, leverages a common data ontology to optimize AI utilization and improves operational accuracy, speed and risk mitigation. 

Broadridge Global Asset Servicing combines over 18 components to deliver unprecedented functionality and a “single gateway” data integration approach. It streamlines the management and maintenance of financial assets, facilitating their safekeeping, accurate transaction processing, and compliance with regulations. Solution features include: 

• Modular design to seamlessly support onboarding and the overall experience. 
• Ability for institutions to consolidate and reconcile data more efficiently across the entire business, eliminating friction and minimizing financial and reputational risk. 
• Simplified tech stack to help users realize straight-through processing across the asset servicing ecosphere. 
• Consolidated, real-time data supports advanced, generative artificial intelligence to provide predictive and operational analytics, driving efficiency and real-time decision making. 

AutoRek and Capgemini have signed a new agreement that will see Capgemini become AutoRek’s first strategic professional services and technology partner. This will empower AutoRek to be at the forefront of regulatory changes and reporting requirements for clients. Through this agreement, Capgemini will mobilize its team of experts on AutoRek’s reconciliation solution and guide AutoRek’s clients with day-to-day support of implementations. 

AutoRek is a Glasgow-based fintech company with an award-winning reconciliation and financial data management platform which strengthens the finance operations and controls for some of the largest institutions across asset management, payments, banking and insurance sectors. Through combined industry expertise, Capgemini will enrich its portfolio with a new go-to-market proposition alongside AutoRek to address the increasing market need for real-time cash management and transaction reconciliation. 

A report by Capgemini indicates half of payment executives handle their cash reconciliation process manually. A common approach sees large volumes of data analyzed through spreadsheets taking significant effort and time, and being prone to error, potentially causing payment delays and supplier record discrepancies. Without consistent and reliable data tracking of spend, teams can encounter obstacles that impede efficient cash flow management and identification of areas for improvement, creating roadblocks that ultimately lead to poor payment reconciliation. The intelligent automation of money movement and liquidity reconciliation can revolutionize the process giving enterprises the transparency they need with real-time cash forecasting, increasing the value of their working capital, and driving their competitiveness in the marketplace. 

CLARA Analytics (“CLARA”), a leading provider of artificial intelligence (“AI”) technology for insurance claims optimization, today announced that Risk Administration Services, Inc. (“RAS”) will leverage its technology to enhance its claims processes. To achieve this objective, RAS will adopt CLARA’s full product suite, including Claims DocIntel Pro, Triage, Treatment, Fraud, and Litigation. 

As the leading expert in workers’ compensation insurance and loss mitigation management, RAS manages The Dakota Group® (“DG”), the largest voluntary writer of workers’ compensation in South Dakota and one of the largest in the Upper Midwest. DG is “A” rated by AM Best and has been named to the Ward’s 50 companies for the last four consecutive years, showcasing its commitment to best practices and consistent high performance. These successful traits make RAS the perfect customer for CLARA, a company that drives new levels of efficiency for insurance claims. 

Raymond James Ltd., the Canadian arm of North American investment dealer Raymond James Financial Inc., and Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernizing financial planning with customized and convenient advice, today announced a partnership to improve the client planning experience for Raymond James-affiliated advisors. This partnership will help advisors personalize the advice experience in alignment with Raymond James’ aim to deliver a holistic approach to managing wealth, addressing various aspects of clients’ financial lives through a combination of strategic planning, investment strategies and tailored solutions. 

By integrating Conquest’s artificial intelligence (AI)-powered financial planning platform, Raymond James advisors can develop hyper-personalized strategies for clients. This collaboration enables precise scenario analysis, goal-based planning and real-time adjustments, enhancing the overall client experience. Partnering with Conquest supports Raymond James’ commitment to comprehensive wealth management by providing deeper insights, improved client engagement and more tailored financial advice. 

With access to Conquest’s AI-powered platform, specifically its Strategic Advice Manager (SAM), Raymond James’ corporate planning and advisory teams, along with associated wealth planners, can help clients better understand how their decisions impact their overall financial plans. SAM’s proprietary algorithm uses client-specific data to propose and rank strategies based on the client’s unique financial situation and provide a more dynamic planning experience. Further enhancing interactivity, SAM offers clear recommendations that show the potential impact of each decision on individual goals and the broader financial plan. 

Manulife Wealth* has enhanced the support it provides its advisors with access to Conquest Planning Inc. (“Conquest”), a technology platform modernizing financial planning with customized and convenient advice. With this announcement, Manulife Wealth and Conquest bring Conquest’s strategic advice manager (SAM) and financial planning tools to Manulife Wealth’s network of more than 1,000 advisors. Conquest’s modernized technology platform will enable Manulife Wealth advisors across Canada to simplify the financial planning process and deliver personalized advice and an elevated service experience for all clients. 

Manulife Wealth advisors can use Conquest’s SAM to streamline workflows, boost productivity and enhance client service, aligning with their commitment to providing tailored advice and solutions that reflect clients’ goals and priorities. Backed by the power of artificial intelligence (AI), SAM empowers advisors to help understand and interpret the results for their client’s unique situation and build flexible plans quickly with individualization. These adaptable plans can be readily customized to evolve with clients’ changing life circumstances, objectives, priorities and risk tolerances. 

Manulife Wealth advisors may offer planning services to help clients on decisions related to goal setting, net worth and cash flow planning, investment management, retirement planning, tax planning, insurance, estate planning, philanthropy and more. 

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today launched CrowdStrike Financial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CrowdStrike, providing tailored financing solutions for the AI-native CrowdStrike Falcon® cybersecurity platform. Through this new offering, customers benefit from accelerated platform consolidation with streamlined access to the market-leading technology they need to stop breaches. 

As more organizations consolidate on the Falcon platform, CrowdStrike continues to innovate to make its industry-leading technology even more accessible. Last year, CrowdStrike introduced Falcon Flex, providing adaptable licensing to the Falcon platform’s full portfolio of best-in-class modules, allowing customers to use what they need, when they need it. Customers can use CrowdStrike Financial Services in combination with Falcon Flex, as well as in standard licensing models, to accelerate adoption of the Falcon platform and stay ahead of sophisticated threats. 

Doug Clinton, co-founder and Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management, today announced the launch of Intelligent Alpha, a new investment firm designed to capitalize on the transformational capabilities of artificial intelligence. Intelligent Alpha employs an investment committee built on three large-language AI models — GPT, Claude, and Gemini — to construct various investment strategies. 

The firm’s first ETF, launching today, is the Intelligent Livermore ETF (LIVR), named for famed trader Jesse Livermore. 

After more than a year testing dozens of strategies, LIVR will be the first public offering of an AI-powered investment strategy built entirely on large-language models. The evolution of AI to current large-language models from the prior popularity of machine learning models has enabled the technology to provide differentiated investment analysis compared to human peers to enable a variety of investment styles. At launch, the LIVR portfolio will focus on opportunities in AI, Latin American equities, Asian equities, renewables and energy, and defensive stocks as selected by the AI investment committee. 

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, and IPC Systems, a leading provider of trading communications solutions, announced today the launch of ICE Voice. This cloud-based audio solution is now live through ICE Chat, ICE’s industry-leading instant messaging system for commodities, offering a seamless communications platform for traders and global market participants. 

ICE Voice leverages IPC’s Connexus Unigy private cloud platform to integrate always-on, persistent open connections with ICE Chat’s extensive network of over 120,000 users. ICE Chat can support full audio recording with configurable retention and anywhere, anytime playback of archived calls. Integrated chat and voice logs can create a single record of communications, helping to aid in trading desk or firm-wide compliance programs. 

ICE Voice is seamlessly integrated into the ICE Chat platform and is designed to provide an efficient workflow for financial professionals to effortlessly connect and interact. It combines voice connectivity with functionality that was designed specifically to tailor to the custom needs of traders, including ICE Chat’s AI-powered Smart Text Recognition functionality, which turns texts into actionable data using APIs, and Message Blaster for sending single messages to multiple contacts. With the addition of ICE Voice, users can seamlessly jump from chat to voice, open calls from chat tabs and group chat rooms, and create Voice Blasts to ‘shout out’ to groups of open connections simultaneously. 

Today, Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, announced a major milestone to accelerate its offerings for mid-market businesses with the introduction of Intuit Enterprise Suite, a configurable suite of integrated financial products designed to seamlessly scale and enhance productivity and profitability for businesses as they grow. As the world’s leading financial technology platform, Intuit is best positioned to serve the $89 billion total addressable market of larger, mid-market businesses who have more complex business needs as they scale. Intuit Enterprise Suite is now available in the US to multi-entity, service, and project-based businesses. 

Intuit Enterprise Suite is designed for businesses focused on growth, providing one scalable, integrated solution that decreases manual, repetitive tasks with streamlined processes, boosts productivity through powerful automation, and unlocks actionable insights for faster decision making. With the power of AI, Intuit Enterprise Suite enhances profitability end-to-end with a full set of core capabilities all in one place, including: access to robust financial management and accounting capabilities; integrated payroll, payments, and bill pay; automated marketing; access to third-party apps, and a team of experts. It meets the needs of existing QuickBooks customers looking for more powerful functionality and will also include industry-specific customizations for construction, non-profit, service and project-based businesses. 

According to the 2024 Intuit QuickBooks Business Solutions Survey, growth is the number one priority for mid-market businesses, with 82% prioritizing expansion at a steady or fast pace over the next year. However, growing businesses are juggling multiple applications to manage their operations – using 10 different software programs on average – leading to overspending on unused software and time wasted on manual and repetitive tasks due to the lack of an integrated system. Among businesses prioritizing growth, the top improvements they say are needed for their current apps to support that growth are better integration capabilities and more automation to streamline processes and reduce manual work. 

InvoiceCloud, a leading solution for digital bill payment services, has appointed Jed Maczuba as Chief Technology Officer. As CTO, Maczuba will accelerate the development and execution of new products, features, and functionality designed to help drive increased value for InvoiceCloud customers and partners across the utility, government, and insurance industries. The announcement comes on the heels of the recent appointment of Kevin O’Brien to Chief Executive Officer, and new executive hires including Chief Financial Officer Chris Sands and Chief People Officer Jessi Marcoff. 

Maczuba brings nearly 30 years of experience as a technology strategist and leader in the financial services industry. He has a deep background in implementing innovative technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and microservices architectures to deliver solutions that meet business objectives and achieve results. Most recently, Maczuba served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Advisor360°, a Boston-based fintech provider of deeply integrated wealth management solutions, and has also held the role of CTO at Bank of New York Mellon. Earlier in his career, Maczuba held positions at Accenture and IBM. 

Recognized by The 2024 SaaS Awards program as the Best SaaS Product for the Financial Services category, InvoiceCloud continues to drive innovations and applications across a number of sectors. In H1 2024, InvoiceCloud deployed over 1,000 product enhancements designed to improve the biller and payer experience. The company released new POSPay terminals, improved Online Bank Direct functionality, enhanced Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) to uphold accessibility standards, and more. InvoiceCloud was also recently honored in the inaugural Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence. 

Jirav, a leading provider of financial planning and forecasting solutions for accounting, CFO Advisory Firms, and SMBs, is thrilled to announce the appointment of Michael Morrison as its new Chief Executive Officer. With a distinguished career spanning over 25 years in Corporate Performance Management (CPM) and supporting the Office of the CFO, Morrison brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of driving growth and delivering significant value as the company enters the next phase of its own growth. Most recently, he served as CEO of Fluence Technologies, a financial consolidation and close platform solution, where he orchestrated a successful exit to Anaplan in May 2024. 

The company also announced today the launching of Jirav Intelligent Forecasting, or JIF, an artificial intelligence forecasting product that instantaneously creates a forward-looking cash flow forecast. 

Monarch, a provider of implementation and customer success services for leading financial service CRM and SaaS platforms, today announced the expansion of its partnership with Intapp, a leading global provider of AI-powered solutions for professionals in advisory, legal, and capital markets firms. The enhanced partnership now includes direct-to-customer and subcontract opportunities, which enable Monarch to assist new and existing Intapp DealCloud customers with onboarding and configuration services to optimize workflow and platform performance. 

Monarch initially established its leadership in DealCloud services by completing more than 1,800 successful projects as an in-house staff augmentation partner, operating under both the Core10 and Monarch names. These projects spanned integrations, implementations, post-go-live support, rebuilds, revamps and data migrations. The expanded partnership builds on this foundation of in-house expertise, allowing Monarch to apply its deep platform knowledge and deliver the full promise of DealCloud technology directly to clients and as a subcontractor. 

Monarch specializes in configuring DealCloud software and offers expertise to train customer teams on maximizing platform value for their operations. By working with Monarch, new and established DealCloud customers can accelerate the implementation process, streamline data migration and access ongoing maintenance support to unlock the platform’s full potential. 

Options Technology (Options) announced the opening of its new office in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), marking its commitment to the fast-growing Middle Eastern market and reinforcing its global growth strategy. 

As an industry leader in delivering cloud-enabled managed services, colocation, connectivity, and high-performance trading infrastructure, Options will use its Dubai office to provide enhanced, localized offerings to clients throughout the region. These services enable financial institutions to access low-latency trading environments, comprehensive cybersecurity solutions, and real-time market data integration—all vital for businesses operating in today’s fast-paced financial markets. 

Establishing a presence in Dubai will allow Options to enhance its service delivery, offering 24/7 local support to meet the specific demands of international clients. Strategically located in DIFC, Dubai’s financial epicenter, the new office underscores Options’ broader mission to support the global capital markets through cutting-edge technology and unmatched expertise. 

Pagaya Technologies LTD. (NASDAQ: PGY) (“Pagaya” or “the Company”), a global technology company delivering AI-driven product solutions for the financial ecosystem, today announced the appointment of Josh Fagen, CFA, as Head of Investor Relations and COO of Finance. In this role, Fagen will oversee investor and analyst relations and finance team operations, leading the company’s engagement with the equity investor community and Pagaya’s key strategic financial initiatives to drive continued strong financial performance. 

Fagen joins Pagaya from SoFi, where he served as VP/Head of Investor Relations and Competitive Research & Strategy and co-Lead of Finance. During his tenure, he played a key role in helping to lead the company through significant milestones, including taking SoFi public and managing investor relations across multiple business units. Prior to SoFi, Fagen held roles at Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and UBS, specializing in the media, telecom and technology sectors. 

Jency John, who has served as VP of Investor Relations and helped build the company’s IR function since its IPO in 2022, will transition into a new leadership position at Pagaya as VP of Commercial Finance. She will assist in transitioning her responsibilities to Josh in the coming weeks until she moves into her new role. 

Talkdesk®, Inc., a global provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered customer experience (CX) technology that serves enterprises of all sizes, further delivers on its commitment to rid the world of bad CX with the launch of Talkdesk AI Rewriter and Talkdesk AI Translator. These enhancements to the Talkdesk AI portfolio allow enterprises to meet consumers’ growing demand for hyper-personalized, modern customer experience. 

Talkdesk AI Rewriter is an AI-powered tool that allows agents to instantly rewrite text—with just one click—in a professional, friendly, or empathetic tone to match a customer’s sentiment or mood. Hyper-personalizing and improving the quality of written communications ultimately helps increase customer satisfaction and reduce average handle time (AHT)—the average time it takes an agent to assist a contact—because agent-customer engagement is more effective and efficient. 

Talkdesk AI Rewriter also helps contact center supervisors ensure all agents adhere to business rules when communicating with customers—an essential capability when an agent is new or tends to write in a manner inconsistent with guidelines. 

TIFIN AG, a leading provider of AI and machine learning solutions for the wealth management industry, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with Sowell Management, a registered investment advisor (RIA) based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Sowell Management is committed to driving growth through innovative client acquisition strategies. By prioritizing this goal, Sowell Management is eager to leverage TIFIN AG’s AI-powered wealth management platform and data science expertise to identify new growth opportunities. 

TIFIN AG uses artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning to study data, identify trends, and deliver organic growth insights to wealth enterprises. Through personalized intelligence, advisors are empowered to make data-driven decisions to retain and grow existing clients and identify and pursue new ones. 

Firms, like Sowell Management, that partner with TIFIN AG receive ongoing personalized support that is customized to their goals and objectives. Each firm can choose from a variety of models to drive their organic growth efforts, expand their footprint in the marketplace, and enhance the financial advice they deliver. 

Trullion, a leader in AI-powered accounting and audit technology, today announced its Audit Suite, a cloud-based platform designed to leverage AI to enhance accuracy and reduce human error in audits. This solution addresses rising financial reporting complexities and growing workloads for accountants, as new data shows that 59% of accountants are making multiple errors each month, according to a 2024 Gartner report. With Audit Suite, Trullion enables audit teams to work within an AI-driven ecosystem that improves collaboration, mitigates errors, and enhances overall audit quality. 

As the audit industry evolves, so does the need for advanced tools that can keep pace with increasingly complex financial environments. Trullion’s Audit Suite addresses these challenges head-on by integrating AI-powered automation with a user-friendly platform, making it the go-to solution for forward-thinking audit teams. 

Early adopters of the Audit Suite have already seen significant benefits. Tricia Katebini, CPA, Partner at GRF CPAs & Advisors, reported a time savings of 40% using Trullion’s Data Match module. 

Digital banking provider Tyfone today announced Bank3 selected its nFinia® Digital Banking platform to provide commercial and retail account holders a more intuitive and engaging experience, while also streamlining and automating back-office processes. 

The bank’s future growth initiatives are focused on a wide range of commercial and retail capabilities, leading the team to find a holistic banking solution that supported its current and future needs. 

Based in Memphis, Tenn., the $450 million asset bank was searching for a platform that was futuristic yet designed with intention. According to Bank3, its team was impressed with the platform’s configurable design, including the ability to easily integrate with third-party payments and personal finance solutions, coupled with Tyfone’s extensive industry expertise, offering innovative AI-driven search functionalities and back-office efficiency gains. Additionally, nFinia offers Bank3 account holders the ability to manage both personal and commercial accounts from a single log in. 

Wealth.com, the industry’s leading end-to-end estate planning platform, today announced the successful completion of a $30 million Series A funding round, led by GV (formerly Google Ventures). This investment underscores the growing significance of combining scalable next-generation technology with the essential human touch that is required for financial planning. 

The Series A round includes participation from Citi Ventures, Outpost Ventures (an investment platform of Neuberger Berman), 53 Stations (supported by The Pritzker Organization) and Firebolt Ventures (headed by prolific technology investor Gokul Rajaram). The new capital will fuel wealth.com’s continued expansion and product innovation, further establishing its position as the go-to platform for estate planning among financial advisors and wealth management firms. The funding will support the enhancement of its innovative technology and integration capabilities, as well as the development of new features tailored to the needs of advisors and their clients. 

This funding comes on the heels of wealth.com’s recent launch of its Family Office Suite™, a collection of sophisticated estate management tools designed for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients. The suite enhances advisors’ ability to efficiently manage complex estates, with features that simplify estate visualization, optimize tax planning and streamline reporting processes. By integrating powerful artificial intelligence with human expertise and an intuitive user experience, wealth.com has firmly established itself as an industry leader. This leadership is validated by widespread industry adoption and recognition, such as recent inclusion in Fast Company’s 2024 Best Workplaces for Innovators list. Additionally, at the 2024 WealthManagement.com Industry Awards, the company was recognized as the ‘Best Technology Provider’ in the Trust category, while CEO Rafael Loureiro received the Advisor Choice Award for Technology Providers: CEO of the Year.