The Evident AI Symposium in New York City saw insightful, and occasionally incisive, roundtable discussions on the
current state of the AI industry across a number of related topics, with a specific focus on the financial services field.
Opening remarks from
Teresa Heitsenrether, chief data and analytics officer for
JP Morgan Chase provided an overview of findings in
Evident’s AI Index – a global benchmark for the technology’s maturity in the banking sector. Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, speaking with Bloomberg New Economy’s Erik Schatzker, also took to the stage and explored the
geopolitical dynamics of AI. Bremmer sees trouble ahead in the next few years, on several fronts, especially with foreign policy, increasing tariffs, and diplomatic and business relations with Europe.
Bremmer’s not sure just how AI and tech regulation efforts will be expanded or rolled back under the new administration. However, he believes that
Elon Musk, who has spoken both for and against unfettered AI expansion and is suddenly a close confidant of Trump’s, may be more focused on influencing policy beyond the domestic realm, and in fact angling to try to calm US-China relations. “He does a lot
of business there. Revealed preference is Elon would love to be the guy that says ‘I’m trying to make sure that we avoid World War III with the Chinese, not just the Russians.’”
Bremmer doesn’t feel the business tycoon will be successful in out-manoeuvring or out-talking the hawkish advisors surrounding the Oval Office. “If I was going to bet, I would say Elon doesn’t get it done on China. Even if he tries again and again, direction
of play will be towards significantly tougher technology policy towards China under the Trump administration.”
Schatzker went on to lead former Trump White House staffer and crypto investor Anthony Scaramucci in a rollicking, no-holds-barred, ‘former insider’ discussion to hear the controversial New York native’s expectations and predictions for the President-elect’s
second term, and get his take on the
influence of Musk on AI policymaking.
The two also delved into what Scaramucci saw as the seemingly tenuous position of
VP-elect JD Vance, who earlier in the week had paraded embattled former congressman Matt Gaetz around Washington seeking support for his nomination for attorney general - an effort which ended with Gaetz’s withdrawal from consideration and his replacement
by new nominee and fellow Floridian Pam Bondi.
Scaramucci, who survived only 11 days as White House Communications Director last time around, and made it clear he has ‘personal’ issues with the man who hired and later fired him, was asked what would be different during Trump’s second four years there.
Scaramucci asserted that the difference is in familiarity as opposed to 2016 when the election results, and what came after it, were a surprise to many long-term insiders: “Washington is ready for Donald Trump. So, I do predict a better outcome this time,
more stability, because (the Capital establishment) are ready for him, and they’re working in concert with each other.”
Once politics were set aside, additional sessions continued to build the case for AI in the banking industry, with “cutting-edge” applications the feature of the symposium’s final segment. It featured Jacqueline O’Flanagan, financial services industry lead
for Microsoft talking about the explosive growth and continued development of the software firm’s
Copilot “AI companion” and its evolving iterations designed to serve various levels of need and sophistication. Tony Kim of BlackRock, Rodrigo Liang of SambaNova Systems, and Patrick Stokes of Salesforce completed one of the most hard-hitting panels, moderated
by Jackie Davalos of Bloomberg.
While agreeing with the other roundtables’ conversations trumpeting the strong technical and business transformation progress so far - with only a few hiccups and potential challenges, like
massive energy demands and expensive hardware and software requirements slowing AI’s rapid progress in the financial services field - the speakers drilled down deep to explore current industry use cases. One point reiterated by many of the experts during
the day: artificial intelligence is not a new application in the banking world, having been instituted 30-40 years ago by the largest institutions and being utilised to a greater degree – and by more firms of increasingly smaller size as well - ever since.
The final panel’s conclusions? Not too many AI use cases yielding substantial new revenue yet, though some cost savings have been obtained in several areas, said Kim and Stokes. However, all concurred that opportunities would continue develop throughout any
organisation taking a close, honest look at potential AI integration. Stokes compared the opportunities available to those discovered when
financial institutions finally moved to cloud-based systems. “We transformed our entire business. The same thing is going to happen here. It’s everything.”
Microsoft’s O’Flanagan summed up what many in the room had been talking about during the various roundtables - namely the challenge to companies, of all sizes, as the AI field and list of applications matures rapidly, into 2025 and beyond: “Lots of organisations
have to think about what the future of their industry looks like, where they want to be, and how they’re going to go on that journey. This is a very pivotal moment for a lot of (them) and we’re going to see leaders and laggards as we move forward.”