By: Sanjeev Menon, Co-founder and Head of Product, E42
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, automation has emerged as a game-changer across various industries. Among others, the financial sector in particular has wholeheartedly embraced automation as a means to optimise operations, boost productivity, generate cost savings, and streamline processes simultaneously. As the financial landscape continues to evolve, emerging technologies and automation becomes crucial for businesses to stay ahead and thrive in this dynamic era.
By embracing automation and adopting strategic approaches, enterprises can position themselves to ride the wave of change, transforming challenges into opportunities and forging a prosperous future. This article provides an in-depth view of the dynamic landscape of automation––shedding light on its current and future implications on the financial world.
Optimising smart contracts in blockchain with Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Smart contracts are self-executing agreements written in code that automatically execute predefined conditions on a blockchain. The fusion of smart contracts and AI revolutionise finance by streamlining transactions and eliminating intermediaries. AI enhances smart contract functionality through data analysis, pattern identification, and informed decision-making, resulting in increased efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings. With AI-driven optimisation, smart contracts reshape the financial landscape, providing secure and efficient solutions across industries and applications.
Transitioning from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to Cognitive Process Automation (CPA)
Unlike traditional RPA, CPA goes beyond repetitive tasks and brings cognitive abilities to the forefront. By leveraging AI capabilities such as machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics, CPA can be used to interpret financial data, make informed decisions, detect anomalies, and optimise processes. This empowers organisations to streamline financial operations, reduce errors, enhance compliance, and gain valuable insights for strategic decision-making.
The proliferation of APIs
APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, are revolutionising the financial world by enabling seamless integration, data sharing, and collaboration among various systems and services. They serve as bridges that connect different applications and allow them to communicate and interact with each other in a standardised way. APIs automate the exchange of information, streamline processes, and facilitate the delivery of personalised financial services. By leveraging APIs, the finance industry can achieve greater efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation by enabling the development of new financial products and services.
Improvements in Semantic Automation
Semantic automation enables AI-powered assistants to understand conversations with human-like comprehension. Through advanced techniques like semantic understanding and domain-specific language knowledge, these virtual AI assistants can grasp the context of discussions and provide accurate responses. In the financial sector, this plays a crucial role in automating the processing of financial contracts, bills, and instructions. As a result, transactions become more efficient and accurate. By automating tasks that traditionally demanded human intervention, semantic automation enhances user experiences, streamlines operations, and drives heightened efficiency and productivity throughout the financial industry.
Unleashing the power of Large Language Models in financial forecasting and analysis
With advanced AI capabilities, Large Language Models (LLMs) possess the ability to interpret complex financial information and provide insightful recommendations by cross-referencing industry and sector-specific data. Moreover, LLMs have the capacity to verbalise financial tables, transforming raw data into easily understandable narratives. This empowers users to access real-time analysis on the fly, making results readily available to a wider audience. The integration of LLMs into financial processes promises to streamline decision-making, enhance accuracy, and democratise access to valuable insights.
Predictions for finance in 2025
The finance industry is expected to undergo a significant transformation driven by comprehensive automation. This shift will establish touchless transactions as the new norm, facilitated by blockchain technology.
Real-time finance will become standard practice, as decision-making relies on real-time data analysis instead of periodic reporting. Despite initial reservations, self-service options will become more prevalent within the finance sector. This evolution will give rise to new operating models shaped by robots, algorithms, and diverse workforce configurations.
In line with forecasts from Gartner, over half of the global population is expected to participate in at least one Internet of Behaviors (IoB) program by 2025. Physical experience-based businesses will enhance financial outcomes by expanding into paid virtual experiences. Furthermore, the deployment of enterprise workloads in cloud infrastructure and platform services will see a significant surge, reaching 40 percent by 2023, compared to 20 percent in 2020.
Conclusion
In this era of rapid technological advancement, staying ahead requires continuous learning and upskilling for individuals along with being adaptable and agile to thrive in a changing landscape.
For businesses, embracing automation is essential. Enterprises are strongly encouraged to harness the power of cutting-edge tools such as cognitive automation, Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), and conversational AI. Staying informed about emerging trends like the Internet of Behaviors (IoB) and Total Experience (TX) will ensure that they remain at the forefront of innovation. Additionally, adopting agile methodologies like DevOps enables quick adaptation to changing market dynamics. By leveraging the right tools, instruments, and methodologies, enterprises can seize the opportunities presented by the future of financial automation, driving greater efficiency, productivity, and growth.
