Microsoft has been building the best cloud for financial services businesses. Firms are moving to the cloud and AI for several reasons; cost optimization, operational efficiency, better insights, generate new business models, etc.
Ultimately, we see cloud and AI as critical components for financial institutions to better serve their customers and compete in the 21st century economy.
Implementing new technologies into the financial sector allows companies a number of improvements in different spheres of business. For example, organizations in the financial sector are already actively implementing AI-based solutions to achieve several important goals.
One of them is to improve customer experience, as AI can be used to analyze customer interactions and track KPIs. That way, the bank can identify and address issues before they can affect customer relations. It also allows continuous monitoring, transparency, and privacy protection for customers.
To improve communication, we now have chatbots – a cost-effective tool that saves valuable time for the workforce, with AI solutions predicting customer needs based on insightful trends and models. It allows the banks to offer relevant products and services proactively. AI delivers an improved customer experience by interacting with people in a natural, personalized, and innovative way.
There is also a great benefit in AI-based analytics, which harnesses data’s power to become a powerful tool in fighting against fraud, managing risks, and improving assessing customer creditworthiness.
Thanks to machine learning and more substantial computing power, security teams can protect the bank against cyberattacks, with real-time analysis for faster threat protection. All of these advantages and many more are provided with Microsoft Azure, which already helps some of the largest financial institutions in their everyday business.
According to Microsoft’s AI-Driven Competitiveness Research, the most widely used AI technologies in the financial services sector are predictive analytics and systems that explore and interpret data to help gain insight into their business (52%). Further on, 44% of companies use Robotic Process Automation to process payroll and call center operations, and 40% of companies use technology for machine learning, which empowers systems to improve based on their own experience. Banks in the US and China are using AI solutions to analyze contracts and complete in 1 second what used to take 360,000 hours of work time.
From an operational, financial, and reputational point of view, AI provides an opportunity to make positive changes and reach a new business development level. To do this, companies must be aware of the developments and continuously introduce technology at all stages of business processes. It requires competent employees with an understanding of how the technology works and what its capabilities are. Realizing the importance of this, Microsoft launched the free Microsoft AI Business School.
This is a unique program that aims to improve business leaders’ skills and takes into account the most critical aspects of business management using AI. It provides lessons and insights based on AI’s business development experience from top executives, CFOs, and experts.
For example, a course for the financial sector lasts about 9 hours. It provides knowledge on creating additional value for your business using AI, making it more profitable and competitive. In the process of acquiring necessary skills, we always have to keep in mind that educating is a continuous process, especially in the usage of new technologies, that grows and changes almost daily.
Our intelligence we grow by learning makes us human, and AI is an extension of that quality, to quote Yann LeCun.
