[InnoVEX 2018 Forum] AI Applications will Impact Fintech

 2018-09-04 By: InnoVEX Team

The last keynote speech in the AI Forum of InnoVEX 2018 is by Dr. Ching Yung Lin, the CEO of Graphen, Inc. and Professor of Columbia University. The speech was opened by a short introduction from Professor Jennifer Wang, the Vice President and the Distinguished Chair Professor of National Cheng-Chi University.


Dr. Lin said the currently available AI is used in image, voice, and speech recognition among other applications. Although this is a good start, AI's progress to truly replicate humans seems to be a long way away; because humans don't just recognize objects, but they try to think or guess what is happening around them and understand the underlying motivations or reasons.


As a developing technology, AI will definitely reach greater potentials in the future, but currently its main forte is in recognizing objects and patterns. This might be the same level of ability as an animal; the most difficult part comes in the higher thought processes such as perception, feeling, comprehension, understanding, and strategizing.



The finance world however, does not recognize humans, only strategies and perception. There are many possible things that can be solved by AI in this sense. Such as if it is possible to build a new AI function that can handle not only sensing, but also recognizing and understanding the underlying information of observed phenomena. At any given moment in time, there are innumerable events happening simultaneously which might be interconnected. These events are opportunities which can be used as an input to create predictions.


One of the most common applications of AI in finance is trying to predict stock changes. Multiple factors can affect the stock outlook; including industry wide events, corporate operations, financial issues, macroeconomic changes, geopolitical issues, and more. With so many factors affecting stocks, computers need to find news on the current events to predict stocks' movements. It is for this reason that Wall Street now are looking for more Natural Language Processing experts who can analyze events and predict stock movements based on them.


One of the best benefits of AI is that it is possible to make a series of AI with different characteristics without needing to spend too much on extra hiring. One of the existing applications is avatar based trading where AI can act as stock traders with different personalities and produce different results. AI traders hold an advantage to human traders in the sense that they do not need to rest, eat or drink. This means they are best utilized in forex trading because they can work for 24 hours without rest; thereby circumventing the time difference issues or momentary distractions.


The AI applications in finance or fintech also extend to banking as AI can make a safer, more intelligent & efficient banking system. In relation to startups, Dr. Lin believes that startups often approach fintech from a disruption angle; meaning they try to disrupt the status quo and replace what the banks are already doing. However, this approach might not solve the problems which truly need solving. He suggested startups instead work with banks; try to understand their needs and solve critical problems with their new solutions. Banks have much room for improvements; whether in innovation or operation side. By building advanced AI platforms, startups can deploy and develop many new solutions quickly. Such as core banking monitoring, risk minimization, money laundering prevention measures, fraud detection, and more.


AI in banking will be needed to gather information, understand objects, behaviors, and improve performance. It will also need to be used to analyze regulations and guarantee that banks are indeed following them. In short, advanced AI technologies will impact all aspects of the finance industry.


Watch the full keynote here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y_cBryEwOw


InnoVEX AI Saloon 2018


The InnoVEX team will host an event discussing AI in 2018. We will invite speakers to hold a panel discussion on its applications in logistics and more. More information will be announced on our Facebook and Twitter pages.