Some Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts have said that the innovation could synergise with humans to reduce 90 per cent of customers’ service workload in banking and other financial services sectors. The experts said this at the 18th Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Annual Banking and Finance conference in Abuja on Wednesday.Mr
Mr. Tomiwa Adefokun, AI Leader, West Africa, Ernst and Young, said that AI would help customers to get required banking services in record time.
He said when AI synergies with humans, customers can get services when and where they need it without necessarily minding if it is banking hours or the branch. He added that an approximated 80 billion dollars would be saved in labour cost by 2026 due to agentic AI usage in contact centres.Adefokun
Adefokun said AI in the financial services market was expected to grow from 20 billion dollars in 2023 to over 130 billion dollars by 2030. The expert listed some of the customers’ services transformation aspects of AI to include AI driven on boarding, personalised banking services and agentic contact centre. Adefokun said the benefits of AI in banking included fraud detection and risk management, and financial inclusion. ”The future of financial institutionsfoku. will be determined by the embrace of AI and its revolution,” he said
Dr. Wang Wisdom, the Director, Software Business, Huawei Technologies, stated the need for financial institutions to build AI that would be tailored to the needs and aspirations of customers.
Wisdom, represented by Tayo Ogundeji, the company’s Senior Product Manager, urged financial stakeholders to emerge from being only consumers of AI to innovators, to meet up with emerging trends.
Mr. Ehia Erhaboh, the Co-Founder AI in Nigeria, said that AI could help financial services operators to become good performance managers. Erhaboh called on citizens to view AI as a business transformation opportunity. ”It is no longer about what AI can do but what it cannot do.
”Whether we like it or not, AI will replace skills. What we should ask ourselves now is what skills we have to stop us from being replaced by AI.
”What organisations should do is to know how to help their employees to improve their levels of skills,” he said.
Dr. Stanley Jacob, the President, Fintech Association of Nigeria, said that banks that would lead the sector were those that would optimise the use of AI.
Dr. Jameelah Sharrieff-Ayedun, the Managing Director, Credit Registry, said AI would guarantee the mindset shift of citizens. The title of the session was “Navigating the AI Revolution: Strategic Direction for Financial Institutions’’.
The theme of the conference was, “The New Economic Playbook: The Intersection of Banking, Policy and Technology’’.
COURTESY: (NAN)
