equitably.ai recently had the pleasure of joining the panel at one of the Investment Association’s Tech Talk events supported by Stephenson Harwood, as AI continues to transform the investment management industry.
This event was an opportune moment for industry innovators, including our own John Paul, Co-Founder of equitably.ai, to share insights on how AI is reshaping the future of investment management and how to utilise it to get the AI benefits while minimising risks.
Event Overview: AI’s Role in Investment Management
The event brought together industry professionals to discuss opportunities, challenges, and risks and benefits of AI in the investment management sector. After opening remarks from Gillian Painter, Head of Membership and the Engine, Investment Association’s Fintech Hub, a series of discussions explored how AI is transforming the industry.
From integration challenges to regulatory landscapes, the day was packed with great content. Keynote speaker Prasad Chandrasheker, Global Head of Emerging Technology Strategy at Fidelity International kicked off the talks with a deep dive into best practices and the obstacles firms face when adopting AI.
Fireside Chat: AI Regulation and Ethics
The conversation moved on to regulation with Simon Bollans of Stephenson Harwood and John Bowman from IBM for a fireside chat. They talked about the balance between innovation and ethical responsibility in AI deployment, the growing concerns around misinformation, cybersecurity threats and making sure AI driven systems operate within ethical boundaries.
Panel Discussion: AI-Driven FinTech and the Future of Investment Management
For us, the highlight of the event was the panel discussion moderated by Shruti Deb, Policy Adviser at the Investment Association. Joining the panel were Ángel Agudo, Chief Product Officer at Clarity AI, Chandini Jain, CEO and Co-Founder of Auquan, and John Paul, representing equitably.ai. The panel went on to discuss how AI is already being used across the investment management industry and what lies ahead.
One of the points of discussion was how to improve return on investment (ROI) from AI enterprise deployment by balancing AI risks and AI benefits?
John Paul and the panel talked about topics including:
- Deployments often being technology initiative and but taking a function (risk, compliance, operations, finance etc.) and process start normally take more time at the start but leads to higher ROI.
- Enterprise deployment of AI can start with generative AI or for analytical AI. The former is often used for individual productivity while the latter for more end-to-end process improvement.
- AI deployments often hit a threshold of how far they can take generative AI after some prompt engineering has been applied and then there is a need for finetuning or customising of AI models or more Retreival Augmentated Generation (RAG).
- Quality in AI, highlighting that quality methods have long been applied to systems and processes and AI is just another system being applied for improvement of processes.
- Achieving quality in AI is important for investment management as it aligns to FCA’s approach of using the senior management regime for regulating AI. See FCA’s Chief Data, Information and Intelligence Officer, answers questions about how the FCA has been regulating the use of AI on our YouTube channel here.
Closing Remarks
Concluding remarks were given by Gillian Painter and were followed by networking drinks giving everyone a chance to mingle.
equitably.ai was proud to be part of this insightful and forward-thinking event by the Investment Association, contributing to the growing conversation around AI’s role in the investment management industry. As AI drives change, equitably.ai remains committed to helping firms navigate the landscape with practical, tailored solutions that maximise impact and minimise risks.
If you’re interested in training on how to use AI for Investors, we have a Fundamentals of Practical AI for Investment Management Firms AI learning session coming up with the Investment Association on Tuesday, November 5th. Register here, and we look forward to seeing you there!