Firms will soon have the opportunity to experiment with AI thanks to a new partnership between the Financial Conduct Authority and NVIDIA.

The FCA has described the programme as a ‘Supercharged Sandbox’, aiming to give firms access to better data, technical expertise, and regulatory support to speed up innovation.

It is open to any financial services firm looking to innovate and experiment with AI.

According to the FCA, the sandbox will help firms who are in the discovery and experiment phase with AI.

An existing AI Live Testing service helps those further along in development and ready to use AI. In its new strategy, the FCA has committed to supporting economic growth by enabling innovation and harnessing technological advances like AI.

The Supercharged Sandbox is part of the FCA’s AI Lab, which was first announced in October last year, which aims to provide a pathway for firms, the FCA, and wider stakeholders to engage with AI.

“This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so. We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth,” Jessica Rusu, the FCA’s chief data, intelligence, and information officer, said.

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Dr Jochen Papenbrock, EMEA head of financial technology, NVIDIA added: “AI is fundamentally reshaping the financial sector by automating processes, enhancing data analysis, and improving decision-making, which leads to greater efficiency, accuracy, and risk management across a wide range of financial activities.

“The FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox provides firms with a secure environment to explore AI innovations using NVIDIA’s full stack accelerated computing platform, supporting industry-wide growth and efficiency.”

Financial firms are already firmly on the AI train, as the vast majority of companies already consider AI core to their business operations, according to a study from SS&C Blue Prism.

Firms interested in the Supercharged Sandbox can now apply, and successful applications will be able to experiment from October.