Financial services digital trends

To prepare for the world of tomorrow organisations must stay on top of digital trends, this is especially true for the finance sector. In 2021 it is predicted that the use of automated AI will grow making financial services smarter.

According to The Economist Intelligence Unit there is expected to be an 86% increase in AI investments by 2025 in the financial services sector. To be able to fully exploit this the AI needs to be user friendly so that is allows users to quickly build relevant models, easily understood and scalable.

When thinking about how to implement AI in your organisation it is important to look at how you can leverage the most out of your existing platforms. Microsoft intelligent cloud is one of the most forward-thinking platforms, especially with regards to future planning. 

Azure is the driving force behind Office 365 and offers Azure Cognitive Services. Azure Cognitive Services is a cloud-based service that brings AI within reach of every developer, even if you don’t have machine-learning expertise. Helping you to build cognitive intelligence into your applications with REST APIs and client library SDKs.

The catologue of cognitive services are categorized into five main pillars, these are:

– Vision

– Speech

– Language

– Decision

– Search

There are a range of different services that make up these five main pillars and you have access to several development options such as:

– Automation and integration tools such as Power Automate

– Development options like Azure Functions and the App Service

– Cognitive Services Docker containers for secure access

– Tools such as Apache Spark, Azure Databricks, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Kubernetes Service for Big Data

Find out more about Azure Cognitive Services

Microsoft Power Platform is designed to help you build professional-grade apps the easy way, allowing you to rapidly build low-code apps and modernize processes and solve tough challenges in your organisation. In addition to this the AI Builder has prebuilt models meaning you can use these to add intelligence to your apps without having to build your own models. The following prebuilt models are currently available in AI Builder.

In addition to the AI Builder prebuilt models there is also the AI Builder Invoice Processing Starter Kit. This AI Builder automates invoice processing and offers a role-based workflow. Leveraging data extraction, Power Automate flows for the orchestration, Common Data Service entities to store data and Power Apps to configure and monitor the process. If you already have an AI Builder, Power Apps and Power Automate licence this Invoice Processing Starter kit is available as part of your licence subscription. View the AI Builder Invoice Processing Starter Kit on Microsoft AppSource  

Compliance is important for any industry but even more so for the finance industry, especially data privacy, security, compliance regulations, and regulatory compliance standards. Add to this that technology is continually evolving in the cloud and it is clear to see that it can become extremely difficult to stay compliant and keep your customers data safe. Leveraging the Microsoft platform and integrating wherever possible, not only gives you end to end coverage across your multiplatform environment but streamlines and strengthens your security, ensuring your organisation remains resilient.

Now is the time to start embracing AI to enable you to stay competitive and continue to provide your customers with an optimum customer experience.

To help you understand what areas your organisation is strong in, and any areas where you could be working smarter, take Business Cloud Integration’s Continual Development Scorecard. This will provide you with your unique score, there will also be helpful steps explaining how you can improve your digital transformation.