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Handle With Care: BNY Takes Disciplined Approach to AI Implementation

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The huge opportunities offered by artificial intelligence (AI) can appear overwhelming and it’s important that financial institutions carefully manage the risks they pose to get the most out of this new generation of solutions.

That’s among the key messages that Eric Hirschhorn, chief data officer at banking giant BNY, will convey when he takes the podium at the opening Practitioner Innovation Keynote address of A-Team Group’s Data Management Summit New York City next week.

The race to build new technology into the data management processes and operations of banks, asset managers and insurance companies is gathering pace. But Hirschhorn warns that organisations need a strategic vision and disciplined, risk-aware, execution to avoid taking potentially damaging wrong turns.

“We see data in the world around us increasing in volume and pace along with the opportunities and risk,” Hirschhorn told Data Management Insight.

For firms to be successful with AI, they need to ensure they have a solid foundation around ethics, privacy and usage right policies in place or else they will risk losing the trust of their user base or worse.

Summit Opener

Hirschhorn will kick off the summit on 26th September with the Practitioner Innovation Keynote Address entitled “Unlocking the power of AI for data driven innovation, business growth and efficiencies at BNY”. He will touch on how the US-based banking giant is approaching AI and how the technology is already benefiting its operations.

The delivery will be among several during the day that will tackle the topic of AI and how institutions can extract value from the technology.

While Hirschhorn argues that the new “coastline of opportunity” offered by generative AI (GenAI) is intoxicating and that it promises to make us “more effective and more insightful”, he says that without careful implementation, organisations could find themselves going down multiple legal problematic rabbit holes.

“Those who will be most successful, are those who have started thinking about data in terms of policy-driven inputs and governed output,” Hirschhorn said.

Limitless Benefits

The solution is simple, he suggests: organisations need to be risk managers every day when using AI. With those safeguards in place, the benefits of AI are limitless.

As well as bringing quantifiable financial value to an organisation, AI can have a dramatic impact on the softer aspects of corporate operations; a better work life balance for professionals as machines take up routine tasks and let them focus on more rewarding activities, for instance, and improved customer engagement.

“If we take a risk-adjusted approach, we’d find we’d be racing forward on some topics and more cautious on others,” he says.

“Our framework for rolling this out across the enterprise is market-leading; not in the Star Wars sense but in that methodical discipline, a sense of urgency and a sense of safety will drive outcomes at pace,” Hirschhorn adds. “We’re a bank – be a bank, but don’t be stodgy, don’t be slow, don’t be old; be fleet of foot but be risk-managed.”

  • A-Team Group’s 14 annual Data Management Summit New York City will be held on 26 Click here to register or sign up for attendance below.

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