(Toronto) Artificial intelligence is already showing its potential to transform the financial sector, even if it is still in its infancy, Royal Bank CEO Dave McKay said Wednesday.
The Royal boss, who started working at the bank 40 years ago as a computer programmer, stressed that AI still offers too many errors and “hallucinations” or absurd responses to be able to cope with it. proud in banking services.
“It’s an incredible technology that will transform our business, but it’s not ready for prime time,” he said at a technology conference at the University of Waterloo in Toronto.
The bank, however, sees huge potential in everything from writing code to helping sales staff navigate complex financial products.
McKay believes banks will need to prepare algorithms in-house to monitor data and ensure systems are reliable and accurate.
He believes that AI is already showing potential with systems such as Aiden – the AI-powered operations platform developed by the bank and its partners – which outperforms human brokers by 30%.
“She’s learning on her own. It has weathered all of the market volatility and recent volatility, and continues to deliver superior performance. The machine can therefore function, learn by itself to adapt very, very well to complex environments. »
McKay added that, much like climate change, AI is creating fear and anxiety as it begins to transform society and people feel out of control.
“We’re going to reinvent our society again, and that’s going to be a threat and that breeds fear, fear of change,” he observed.
There is a similar pattern of uncertainty and fear with climate change, McKay said. “We don’t control our change journey, we don’t have a plan. »
The Royal Bank, which has faced intense criticism for being one of the world’s largest financiers of fossil fuels, has also recently launched emissions reduction initiatives, including one in the agricultural sector.
McKay emphasized that whether it is AI or climate, we need to take the challenges step by step and develop the solutions that work.
“It’s just about putting yourself out there, and going through that process. »
