An Interview with Prag Sharma: Generative AI in Banking Sector

Prag Sharma leads the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) for Citigroup - one of the big four banks in the United States with over 240,000 employees worldwide.

Mr. Sharma is a headline speaker at GITEX GLOBAL at the Ai Everything conference along with Banking, Finance & Insurance Tech track on the Dark Stage.

Topics:

• What does the future hold for AI integration in the banking sector?
• Generative AI in Banking: Separating reality from hype

 

Generative AI: Humanity’s saviour or the ultimate destroyer?

Generative AI, just like fire, nuclear technology or even human intelligence, is a dual purpose. It’s a double-edged sword. In the long term, whether it becomes humanity’s savior or its ultimate destroyer will depend entirely on us.

Generative AI, without doubt, represents unprecedented progress in our quest to create machines like us. Its all-encompassing capabilities will eventually support us in many aspects of our lives, and we will live and be surrounded by many more AI-capable machines in the future.

But while AI is a double-edged sword, there are many applications or use cases that can be exploited today to benefit society. All aspects of society, including the regulators, should look to ensure that we have the appropriate guardrails in place when we utilise this technology, especially for high-risk applications.

One thing is certain: AI has the capability to make business, government, and society more inclusive, responsible, and human-centred. The first step towards this goal is for all of us to understand the capabilities of this technology, its weaknesses and its strengths. And this is not just the technologists and data scientists that need to understand this; it is also the business leads, thought-leaders and end users.  

 

Generative AI in Banking

The future of AI and Financial Services is bright, and the banking sector is keen to utilise this technology to unleash productivity and power new products and services.

While Generative AI is new, AI more generally has been used the banking sector for a while now. The focus has been to utilise this technology to further accelerate and personalise client engagements, advance operational efficiencies and enhance the risk and control processes.

 

A new era of AI governance

Many countries across the world have approached AI governance and regulation from their specific vantage points. The EU, China, India, US, Singapore and others have all looked to enable the use of AI within their jurisdictions while ensuring that appropriate guardrails are put in place.

From legislation and regulations to guidance documents and blueprints, many approaches have now been implemented across the globe. The UAE and the wider Middle East can review these approaches to design an approach for regulating AI that best aligns with its values, principles and ambitions.

I think organizing events such as GITEX GLOBAL and bringing key players from across the global to have an inclusive discussion is something that can be replicated across the globe to leverage the power of AI that is ethical, transparent, and accountable.

From my perspective, GITEX GLOBAL gives me an unparalleled stage to discuss and debate the most pressing issues of our times as they relate to AI with experts from across the globe. More importantly, it will give me an opportunity to learn!