UK must smarten up about artificial intelligence tools

AN alarming story I read over breakfast this morning suggested that artificial intelligence could eventually lead to the destruction of humanity.

A somewhat downbeat note to start the day I thought. But surely, in the more pressing short term, AI has to be seen as a massive opportunity as well as a long term threat?

Financial services in particular have much to gain as finance and tech increasingly overlap. A new index being published today ranks 23 of the Western world’s leading banks according to how they are developing and deploying AI in in a huge range of areas to give themselves a competitive advantage.

At the top of the AI tree is JP Morgan Chase which leads on all four of the main “pillars” used to assess the banks: talent, innovation, leadership and transparency.

The Evident AI Index shows JP Morgan followed by Royal Bank of Canada, Citi, UBS, and Wells Fargo.

European banks, and the big UK players in particular, lag far behind their North American peers. Even mighty HSBC can only manage 13th spot and Barclay, NatWest and Lloyds are even further back.

AI may well be the end of all us one day. Who knows? But in the here and now it is a technology that is clearly going to drive innovation and success in an industry that London has long excelled in.

Today’s research suggests British banks need to raise their AI game if they are to compete on the global stage and if London is to hold on to its status as a world leading fintech hub.