The “winners of the future” will be those firms and businesses that embrace, understand, and implement artificial intelligence, according to Piers Linney, co-founder and executive chairman of Implement AI.
Speaking at Money Alive’s ‘Embracing digital strategy to empower compliance and growth’ event, Linney stressed the urgency of implementing AI into financial advice businesses.
“There’s a technological ship that’s leaving the harbor soon and, once that ship leaves, it is going to be very hard to catch up,” he said.
Linney said the industry is currently in a “AI-assisted era” in which the use of AI exists but does not dominate.
However, he cautioned that “things are going to change very quickly” and that the industry will move towards an AI-first world.
“What you’re going to see now over the next 24 months, mark my words, is more and more news about how AI is changing, how it is improving, how it is reducing costs, how it is optimising companies,” Linney said.
Therefore, Linney advised that, in the current AI-assisted era, there is an opportunity to “get ahead of the curve, get ahead of the competition”.
Application
Also speaking at the event, Implement AI chief executive officer, Doctor Aalok Y Shukla, provided insight into effective ways for AI to be implemented into firms and businesses.
Shukla advised thinking about the implementation across two metrics - optimisation and innovation.
He explained optimising surrounds “doing things better” such as boosting productivity, increasing capacity, and cutting costs.
Innovating, on the other hand, involved doing things differently, with Shukla offering an example of someone switching their pension because the video interface was better.
“The more you can use technology to engage with the psychology of clients, that’s where it is going to become most interesting and you can do some very personalised communication to do that,” he added.
Linney said another area in which AI could provide a benefit was with data, stating: “You can create a competitive advantage just by accessing data”.
This point was explained by Shukla, who stated that, by using AI and data, firms can “ spot the exact cases” that would be relevant to them.
He added this could include identifying who is particularly financially vulnerable or who would make a good client because they match elements from a firm’s existing ideal profile.
Linney concluded by stating: “If you can see things that the competition can’t then you can respond to them ahead of them.”
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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