AI Applied. Let’s get real

Let’s get real about AI was the subject of our second event this year, in conjunction with the Financial Services Forum. While our earlier event in March discussed the ethics and challenges involved in the use of genAI for marketing and product dev, this second event was focused on actual use cases.

With thanks to our amazing panel who provided a range of perspectives:

• Ben Lee, Head of Data & AI, Bidwells
• Michael Jung, CFO and Head of Global Business, DeepBrain AI
• Danielle Moore, Digital Marketing Manager, Lifesearch
• James Maxwell, Executive Creative Director, Teamspirit

Setting up the conversation, Chair Fiona Couper, CMO, Teamspirit, outlined the transformation expectations that generativeAI will have on financial services brands and their communication remain high.

According to Gartner[1] by 2025, 30% of marketing messages will be AI generated, up from less than 2% in 2022. While over 70% of consumers expect AI to negatively impact social channels, so much so that by 2025 50% of consumers are expected to significantly limit their use of major platforms due to a decay in the quality of social media sites - which for marketers, means creating new search and channel strategies for lead gen.

In financial services specifically, use of genAI is widening across operations, with banks’ spending on genAI, as estimated by Juniper Research, set to rise from the current estimate of £4.5bn in 2024 to hit £64.3bn globally in 2030[2].

Chipmaker NVIDIA’s State of AI in Financial Services report found that 46% of respondents reported an improved customer experience as a result of using AI[3]. The same report found:

• 26% of fs companie are using Natural language processing (NLP) or large language models (LLMs)
• 23% are utilising recommender systems / next-best action
• 12% are using AI for their environmental, social, and governance (ESG)
• 12% use it for fraud detection across anti-money laundering and know your customer.

Headline makers in the past few months include:

• NatWest’s AI chatbot, Cora, handled 10.8m queries in 2023 and the bank is rolling out Cora+ with IBM which promises to deliver a more seamless ‘human’ experience’ using the latest AI innovations[4].
• In May this year JPMorgan Chase launched IndexGPT, a ChatGPT-like A.I. that builds thematic indexes currently for institutional clients[5], which they believe will result in an increase in client engagement and broader adoption of quantitative techniques applied to thematic indexes.
• Bunq, the EUS 2nd largest neobank, is expecting to automate 90% of operations with the help of AI and leading to new hires in areas such as AI management and compliance and predictive analytics.

The panel began by sharing a topline on how AI is being used in their respective businesses, with both Bidwells and Lifesearch building on use that began either during or coming out of Covid. Repetitive tasks have been sped up, such as note taking, outlining case studies, content brainstorming, creative concept ideation and business development.

For all, despite early concerns around usage in the businesses, the benefits have outweighed concerns and the challenge is more around ensuring its use and implementation is used well. Human direction and judgement remains vital.

Conversation then turned to discussing how to create better tailored communications and ensure consumer confidence/trust. Counteracting the risk of AI homogenisation the panel agreed on the need to use AI as a helpful tool rather than the finished product.

For DeepbrainAI who specialise in creating AI Avatars the business is wholly focused on helping to scale businesses and at a reduced cost. Michael Jung shared a couple of examples from retail banks in Asia where avatars deliver an improved and more personalised experience.

Ben Lee, Bidwells talked about how AI is helping across multiple areas of the business especially internally and could see how the use of avatars would be hugely beneficial in onboarding inductions for new employees, and in bringing key policies to life. How much more engaging to watch an avatar of the Chief People Officer than wade through the dry text manual. He also talked about the ability to start to interact within the text which will make life even easier.

Danielle Moore, Lifesearch, shared how she is focusing on the impact of Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) on search engine results pages (SERPs), exploring how this evolving technology reshapes digital marketing landscapes and enhances user interactions - particularly as google is no longer the search engine of choice for the younger generation who are happy to use social platforms such as TikTok.

From an agency point of view, James Maxwell, Teamspirit spoke of AI helping inform strategy, concepting and as a helpful copywriting tool to build on. But reinforced that human guidance and differentiated brand personality are even more vital in an AI underpinned world. Particularly for financial services where trust is so fundamental.

Questions from the floor ranged from how to ensure AI imagery and avatars still met Consumer Duty requirements (achieved by ensuring clear supers), distinction in a world of AI (by using AI as a helpful tool rather than the whole answer) to whether there remained some fear around its usage and giving ‘the machine’ too much power (reality is that careful trial is required).

In conclusion, the panel all felt that AI was a helpful addition that made their jobs easier and freed up time to allow them to focus on the more strategic and creative requirements.

If you’d like to discuss how to use your brand's personality to ensure a more distinctive brand experience in a world of AI, you know who to contact hello@teamspirit.co.uk.

Sources:

1. Gartner 2024 CMO Priorities
2. https://www.cityam.com/theres-little-room-for-caution-banks-and-fintechs-gear-up-for-ai-revolution/
3. https://resources.nvidia.com/en-us-state-ai-report/finance-survey
4. https://www.cityam.com/theres-little-room-for-caution-banks-and-fintechs-gear-up-for-ai-revolution/
5. https://www.pionline.com/money-management/jp-morgan-chase-launches-indexgpt