The financial service sector is being disrupted worldwide. The rapid evolution of technology has given rise to new challenger banks and small, agile start-ups are making the Fintech scene one of the most exciting areas of digital.

In the face of the innovation, disruption and increasingly complex regulation, how can financial institutions remain ahead of the game? These were some of the questions asked at the first Enterprise Data Planning event.

As well as evolving technology, new regulations such as open banking are placing data at the heart of the financial services. As the volume, speed and complexity of data grows, how can financial businesses take advantage of this new world?

Global Fintech Hub

The event was opened by Stephen Ingledew, the CEO of Fintech Scotland, who provided an overview of the financial industries in Scotland, as well as the key challenges which the organisation is addressing, with a goal of making Scotland one of the top five fintech hubs in the world today.

Stephen highlighted the areas in which Scotland is already making an impact, with expertise and pioneering organisations in payments, customer engagement, regulation and data platforms.

The role of data was picked up by the following speakers, with a specific focus on how organisations can use the data they already have to improve business intelligence and create actionable outcomes.

Inflection Point

Owen Kimber, from IBM noted that the sector is at an inflection point between the past and the future. Old systems, platforms and even business models are being swept away by new customer expectations and demands. The customer, stressed Owen, has to be at the heart of your strategy moving forward as there are a growing number of alternatives for every service and its all to easy to lose customers if they feel let down, or you lose their trust.

Answering Business Questions

Business and Management Intelligence (BI/MI) were the key themes for search experts ThoughtSpot, in the company’s first Scottish event. Speaker Tom Pizzey highlighted the need to bring together multiple data sources in an open and collaborative way allows a business to answer significant questions at every point throughout the company.

It’s not the volume of data that a company can accommodate, said Tom. It’s ensuring that the data can be presented in meaningful ways to people throughout the company, which enables them to make informed decisions and gain actionable insights.

Explainable AI

However, as the amount of data increases and complexity grows, the demands on human decision makers are rising. Unsurprisingly a growing number of financial institutions are looking to AI to help automate and create a consistent approach to decision making.

Katie Gibbs, the head of consultancy and delivery for Heron.AI explored the ways in which AI can be combined with data to help combat fraud and create a more consistent and – importantly – explainable decisioning process.

Many businesses are rushing into AI, said Katie. Often as part of a C-Suite decision. However, the use case has not been thought out and the system chosen may be based upon cost, or marketing information, rather than in-depth knowledge, focused on addressing a specific problem.

The rapid evolution of AI means there’s no longer a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Instead a combination of services and platforms can provide the best solution and be tailored to deliver the actual outcomes the business requires.

Katie to DIGIT that one of the biggest challenges to a more widespread adoption of AI, is the fact that for many companies which have experimented with AI trials and pilots, the outcomes do not meet expectations. In many cases this is not because the AI was incapable, but because the outcomes themselves were not understood fully, or were poorly specified.

Katie also emphasised the need for ‘explainable AI’ where the decisioning is based upon best human practice and in which both the input data and the decision making process are visible and open. This allows the system to be checked and optimised against the outcomes to ensure the AI is actually contributing beneficially towards the company’s goals.

Bridging the Gap

Will Boyle, the head of business development for Assimil8, the organiser of the event, told DIGIT that the goal of the event was simple: “We wanted to raise awareness of the challenges facing the financial services sector in Scotland.”

The key is communication and collaboration, said Will. While there are many new start-ups coming into the financial sector and creating disruption, they are all working in disparate areas. The challenge is to look at this from an enterprise-wide perspective and indeed an industry-wide perspective. “It’s about bridging the gap between the start-ups and the major financial institutions,” Will told DIGIT.

“We wanted to start the conversations,” concluded Will. “There are countless people pushing the envelope at the forefront of analytics and data in this industry and we wanted to hear from them. As Stephen Ingledew said, It’s about helping to make Scotland a world leader.”