New consortium promotes AI use in financial services

Westpac has announced that it will be one of the founding members of a new consortium seeking to promote the adoption of artificial intelligence within financial services.

According to the bank, the UNSW AI Fintech Hub will bring together industry-leading researchers and businesses to tackle emerging challenges associated with AI.

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The founding members alongside Westpac will include UNSW as well as Amazon Web Services, Databricks, BrewAI and Cognitivo Consulting.

As AI becomes more and more advanced, Westpac group chief technology officer David Walker said that there is a need to ensure it is used in the right way.

“We are incredibly excited to participate with UNSW and tap into the expertise of the consortium to solve important and complex problems across the sector, from helping customers to reducing risk, and supporting businesses with their sustainability priorities,” he said.

Financial Planning Association CEO Sarah Abood recently suggested that AI allows advisers to “not just focus on what it is to be human, but to fully realise what that is to be human”.

Speaking at the FPA Professionals Summit last week, Ms Abood said there were a few practical ways that this could be done, including using AI to match consumers to planners.

She also claimed that, further into the future, AI will give advisers the opportunity to create avatars of themselves and serve their clients in the metaverse.

“I am a believer that humans want to deal with humans wherever they can, but there will be times when they can’t afford to or there is a lead time to get to the human engagement,” said Ms Abood.

“We’re talking 2030 here. I do believe that financial planners will have avatars online and they will be able to do a lot of straightforward engagement with their clients. I think the future is amazing and technology is amazing.”

Meanwhile, on the launch of the new consortium, UNSW Business School senior lecturer Eric Lim described developments in the areas of AI and fintech as exciting.

“It represents an extension of our physical lives into a virtual domain,” said Dr Lim.

“For AI to serve humanity, we must always consider how it is applied and ensure AI serves as part of a critical and ethical infrastructure for the new web3 economy.”