Key areas to address as AI knocks on the door

The need for upskilling is substantial and can be a bottleneck for banks looking to adopt AI. At Tietoevry Banking, the arrival of Generative AI has accelerated our efforts to enhance competencies and integrate AI into our products and services.

How can we leverage AI to harness the benefits it offers? This question has been raised in virtually every leadership team over the past few years. Consulting firm BCG has outlined five requirements for effective upskilling in AI, based on the following insights:

• 89% of leaders acknowledge that their employees need AI skills
• Over 40% recognize that AI creates value
• Yet only 6% of companies have started upskilling efforts

It can be challenging to know where to begin, even though the adoption of AI is not fundamentally different from other large-scale change initiatives. The five key principles BCG outlines for successful, organization-wide AI upskilling align well with the approach we are following at Tietoevry Banking:

• Assess needs and measure results
• Prepare employees for change
• Encourage a willingness to learn
• AI adoption must be a top management priority
• Use AI to enhance AI competencies

Embedding AI in products

At Tietoevry Banking, more than half of our workforce is involved in software development, and AI is already part of everyday operations. As a result, we already have multiple customer solutions utilizing AI in production. We are well-positioned to apply our knowledge from developing these solutions to evaluate new ideas and challenges in terms of their suitability for AI technology. All business units have established R&D teams and pilots, with several potential customer offerings under development.

One example is the development of the large generative financial model – a self-supervised AI model. This model will support several of our products by providing insights and knowledge to improve efficiency for our customers. Along with our AI Explore data analytics platform, such solutions will eventually enhance the effectiveness and precision of our banks anti-money laundering efforts.

Responsible AI builds trust

New technology, particularly revolutionary forms like Generative AI, can push the boundaries of what is possible versus what is ethical. Our exploration and use of AI always adhere to responsible AI guidelines to ensure that AI is developed and used in an ethical, fair, and transparent manner. This reduces the risk of bias, discrimination, and privacy violations while building trust among users and society.

Trust is crucial for our customers, and it is equally important to us as we navigate the rapid development of AI in the design and use of our products and services for the banking and finance industry.