Generative AI in Finance and Beyond
- Afshan Dadan and Ananya Shetty
- May 8, 2023
- 4 mins read
- Fintech Strategy, Insights
Table of Contents
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) describes algorithms (such as ChatGPT by Open AI, StyleGAN by NVDIA, DeepDream by Google) that can be used to create new content, including audio, code, images, text, simulations, and videos.
Over the past six months, the world of generative AI has been rapidly expanding, with breakthroughs and applications emerging at an unprecedented pace. From language processing to image generation, the capabilities of generative AI have grown exponentially, opening up exciting possibilities for industries and individuals alike.
This Google Trends comparison paints an interesting picture of the popularity of some terms that have taken the online world by storm. While the interest in ChatGPT peaked since its introduction in November 2022, it now seems to be slowly declining as the landscape gets crowded. AI, though, is at an all-time high, given the unanimous interest it has been witnessing. What must be noted is that while ChatGPT and AI are the buzzwords, the actual term to describe this new AI phenomenon – generative AI – is nowhere nearly as popular as its counterparts.
AI is everywhere
If you’ve been online recently, that’s what you’ve probably thought looking at the discourse in the tech bubble. From software and applications launching generative AI-enabled solutions to Twitter threads and LinkedIn posts on how you can optimally use AI tools to propel your business or profession – AI is indeed everywhere, but it’s fairly new.
To put things in context, we asked ChatGPT to compare the age of the earth with the emergence of human civilisation and the development of artificial intelligence technologies. It gave us quite a detailed and insightful answer, so here’s the jist of it:
“The difference in time between the formation of the Earth and the emergence of civilisation is much greater than the difference in time between the emergence of civilisation and the development of AI, by a factor of approximately 457,000. This highlights the relatively recent emergence of AI in comparison to the vast timescale of the Earth’s history and the development of human civilisation.”
A factor of 457,000. If that’s where we’re at with AI at present, imagine where we’ll be in the next 5, 10, or 100 years. Mind = blown? You bet.
The latest chapter in the AI tale – generative AI – has taken the world by storm. It has made the magical technology accessible to anyone using the internet, like their superhuman assistant. Companies across various industries have also jumped on the bandwagon and are now using generative AI solutions, from automating tedious tasks to enhancing personalised conversations. With investments, partnerships, and new product launches on the rise, these cutting-edge advancements are changing the world as we know it.
So, what exactly are these companies doing?
In the big tech world, Google is working with Replit, a browser-based integrated development environment (IDE) provider, to integrate AI language models with code-writing software. Google has also developed Bard, a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Microsoft is integrating ChatGPT into its Bing search engine to enhance its performance. It has also positioned itself as a strategic investor and long-term partner of OpenAI, with multiple angles across products and services benefitting both companies.
Amazon launched Amazon Bedrock, enabling developers to build generative AI apps using pre-trained models from third-party providers on AWS. Meta is also said to be developing generative AI tools for advertising, chat, image generation, etc.
In the east, Baidu is creating its version of ChatGPT for China called the Ernie Bot, which can perform advanced tasks like summarising financial statements and producing PowerPoint presentations.
Other software companies like Adobe, Atlassian, Salesforce, Yext, Zoho, and many more are also integrating generative AI modules into their enterprise solutions. Salesforce, for example, is integrating ChatGPT into Slack and has also launched an AI-enabled customer relationship management (CRM) module, ‘Einstien GPT’.
Social media platforms like Discord, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Tiktok are not far behind. Discord and Snapchat are both tinkering with a GPT-enabled chatbot, while LinkedIn has introduced a collaborative article feature through which users can engage in discussions with subject-matter experts.
Research and consulting firms like EY, Bain & Company, and Bloomberg are also leveraging the power of AI. EY has teamed up with Microsoft to develop an intelligent payroll chatbot using Azure OpenAI technology. At the same time, Bain has also announced an alliance with OpenAI to integrate the latter’s solutions for its clients globally. Bloomberg has launched its own BloombergGPT that can help with natural language processing (NLP) tasks like risk assessments, financial sentiment analysis, and more.
All of this advancement in AI adoption has been possible thanks to the developments in advanced computing. Players like Nvidia, Intel, Azure, and AWS play a pivotal role in enabling the effective performance of advanced AI models. Nvidia, for instance, recently announced a set of cloud services for generative AI models created for domain-specific tasks. Intel and AWS are driving the open-source agenda along with Hugging Face, an open-source AI community, to provide cost-effective access to machine learning models for generative AI.
Generative AI plus finance equals…?
Across the financial industry, companies are beginning to experiment with AI to level up their game. They are working with players like OpenAI and Nvidia to introduce AI-enhanced solutions across use cases like wealth management, financial education, risk and fraud management, analysing policy documents, and even writing code for financial applications. Stripe and Morgan Stanley are among the few organisations working with OpenAI’s latest GPT-4.
Klarna is enhancing personalised shopping with recommendations powered by ChatGPT. This feature is being rolled out gradually, starting with North America. Brex and Alaan are offering real-time insights on corporate spending for businesses in the US and the Middle East, respectively, while OnFinance, Plum, and Douugh are promoting financial literacy with ChatGPT-powered chatbots.
A mind-blowing future awaits
It’s safe to say that where there’s innovation, there’s a flurry of activity in the bid to stay ahead and stand apart. Every day comes with new announcements, and going forward, we will definitely see more of such applications of generative AI across financial services and beyond.
The emergence of generative AI has unlocked unprecedented potential for businesses across industries, from finance and e-commerce to healthcare and entertainment. With its ability to understand, reason, and communicate like humans (almost!), generative AI is poised to transform how we live, work, and interact with technology. But this is just the beginning. As we continue to unlock the full potential of generative AI, we can expect to see even more groundbreaking innovations that will change how we perceive the world.
Authors
Afshan, the co-founder and COO at WhiteSight, loves studying business models and understanding how things work. When she's not busy working, you can catch her experimenting with new recipes and flavours in her kitchen.
Ananya Shetty
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