Are Banks Ready for Generative AI?

Generative AI represents a paradigm shift in the way we approach creativity and innovation. However, given banking is one of the most-regulated industries, generative AI adoption could be tricky. 

At Cypher 2023, India’s largest AI conference, Srikanth Gopalakrishnan, head of the India Technology Centre at Deutsche Bank Group, said that we must tread carefully as we venture into this new frontier, taking into account the ethical challenges it poses and strive for a measured and responsible adoption.

As we leverage the capabilities of generative AI, all the while safeguarding the unique attributes of human creativity, we can unlock a future where technology and human ingenuity harmoniously coexist. This harmonious coexistence, according to Gopalakrishnan, promises a more dynamic and enhanced society.

“In regulated industries like banking and healthcare, a lot of homework has been done along with a lot of R&D in order for us to get to where we think the benefits of AI are going to be good,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Explainability is key

Gopalakrishnan said for banks to leverage this technology, they need to be 100 percent sure that the technology works. Given LLMs still hallucinate, leveraging the technology for customer-facing domains could prove tricky.

“You can't just say invest in the stock and leave it at that. The ‘trust me’ is not going to work. The ‘trust me’ must also have explainability. And that is why certain industries (like banking) will have to be extra careful about how to take this forward in a viable fashion.

“We still need explainability. We've been talking to Google, NVIDIA and others, and they are all working on essentially marking up the explainability aspect within the code that they have. First of all, it needs to give confidence to us internally, then to the customers and the regulators,” he said.

However, he feels there are a few areas in banking where generative AI can be adopted without worrying much about regulations. "Customer service is one of those areas," Gopalakrishnan said.

“I believe the volume of business can actually go up in terms of how to actually interact and reach out to customers. We are talking about bots being available, personalised responses being provided.”

Other areas where banks can leverage generative AI are risk management and fraud detection.

Future-proofing of jobs

In his talk, Gopalakrishnan also touched upon the ongoing discussion on the impact of generative on jobs. 

“We have a large number of graduates joining us every year and I have been talking to them. As someone who is relatively new to the industry, they might have to rebrand themselves at least three to four times in their career,” he said.

“So, it’s important for us to start understanding this when speaking about AI, and the transformation it will bring about in the traditional jobs. Repetitive tasks are going to go away, in fact, they are already fading away.”

Even jobs that require a certain level of intelligence from a human to be able to make a decision will also probably go away, Gopalakrishnan said. The ability to learn and relearn is crucial, regardless of the career stage.