Strategy

The Transformative Impact of Artificial Intelligence on the Financial Industry

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the financial industry, with applications in everything from investment management to fraud detection. AI-powered tools are helping financial institutions to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and provide better customer service.

Investment management

AI is being used to improve investment management in a number of ways. For example, AI-powered trading algorithms can help to identify and exploit market inefficiencies. AI can also be used to develop more sophisticated risk models, which can help investors to make better decisions about where to allocate their capital.

Fraud detection

AI is also being used to combat fraud in the financial industry. AI-powered fraud detection systems can analyze large amounts of data to identify patterns that may indicate fraudulent activity. This can help financial institutions to prevent fraud before it happens, or to detect it early on so that it can be investigated and stopped.

Customer service

AI is also being used to improve customer service in the financial industry. AI-powered chatbots can provide 24/7 customer support, which can free up human employees to focus on more complex tasks. AI can also be used to personalize customer experiences, such as by recommending products and services that are likely to be of interest to the customer.

Regulatory compliance

AI is also being used to help financial institutions to comply with regulations. AI-powered compliance tools can help to identify and track compliance risks, and to ensure that financial institutions are meeting all applicable regulations.

Overall, AI is having a major impact on the financial industry. AI-powered tools are helping financial institutions to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and provide better customer service. As AI technology continues to develop, it is likely that the financial industry will continue to be transformed by AI.

Here are some specific examples of how AI is being used in the financial industry:

  • Investment management: BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, uses AI to manage its Aladdin investment platform. Aladdin uses AI to analyze vast amounts of data to identify investment opportunities and to manage risk.
  • Fraud detection: Capital One uses AI to detect fraud in its credit card business. Capital One’s AI-powered fraud detection system analyzes billions of transactions every day to identify patterns that may indicate fraudulent activity.
  • Customer service: ING Bank uses AI to provide customer service through its chatbot, ING Assist. ING Assist can answer customer questions, resolve issues, and provide recommendations.
  • Regulatory compliance: Goldman Sachs uses AI to help it comply with regulations. Goldman Sachs’ AI-powered compliance tools can identify and track compliance risks, and to ensure that Goldman Sachs is meeting all applicable regulations.

The future of AI in finance

The use of AI in the financial industry is still in its early stages, but it is growing rapidly. As AI technology continues to develop, it is likely that the financial industry will continue to be transformed by AI.

Here are some of the ways that AI is likely to impact the financial industry in the future:

  • More personalized financial products and services: AI will be used to create more personalized financial products and services. For example, AI can be used to recommend investments that are tailored to a customer’s individual risk tolerance and investment goals.
  • More efficient and accurate financial markets: AI will be used to make financial markets more efficient and accurate. For example, AI can be used to identify and exploit market inefficiencies, and to provide more accurate pricing for financial products.
  • Reduced risk: AI will be used to reduce risk in the financial system. For example, AI can be used to develop more sophisticated risk models, and to identify and track potential risks.
  • Improved customer service: AI will be used to improve customer service in the financial industry. For example, AI can be used to provide 24/7 customer support, and to personalize customer experiences.

Conclusion

AI is having a major impact on the financial industry, and this impact is likely to grow in the future. AI-powered tools are helping financial institutions to improve efficiency, reduce risk, and provide better customer service. As AI technology continues to develop, it is likely that the financial industry will continue to be transformed by AI.

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain Technology and Why it’s Needed for the Future

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Automation has become one of the most integral part of our lives today. Do you remember the days when you had to cram down those long 10-digit phone numbers to dial to people? Well, we’ve come a long way since then, where all of our contacts are stored in our phones, and we are just one click away from our desired contacts! It would be no injustice if we say evolution of data-science is the best creation of the 21st century. It has almost affected every aspect of our lives making things a lot easier and convenient for us! 

Indeed, over time as technology has evolved, so has our methods of storing data. On that note, blockchain is currently the most revolutionary and innovative technology in this field. In simple terms, blockchain involves storing user’s data over a network of highly secured computers without any single one owning it completely. What makes it special is the high-end security, that keeps the data untouched and immutable for generations!

Blockchain is much intertwined with cryptocurrencies, and in the near future with mass adoption blockchain/cryptocurrency it will bring a revolution in our monetary systems for good! Is this even possible? To start with it, let’s take an example from our daily lives.

So, do you remember when was the last time you made a purchase from Amazon? Did you notice, you might have started seeing ads saying, “You might like”? This all is the basic essence of the problem. Today all of these companies use artificial intelligence technology to study our data and use it for persuading us to generate more sales for them. So many of you may ask, “What’s the problem with it, and is there any way I can fix it? Well, the following discussion will give you the most accurate answer to it; so, let’s dive in!

The Need of Blockchain and It’s Basic Mechanism

These companies use your data to analyze your shopping pattern and to predict what product you might like. “What product they can advertise in a way to nudge you into an impulsive buy.” Here, the most notable thing is the need of that product was not initially there, but it has been created artificially through analyzing your data. Companies have been using these cunning techniques to make you spend your money and to increase their sales!

Well, blockchain technologies put an end to all of this by eliminating the need of these vendors to store your data, who use your data unethically. It would not be wrong to state that blockchain brings democracy to the data storage arena, making the process completely transparent. The simplest explanation of the blockchain mechanism is, you can imagine it as a chain of blocks where the user saves his data securely inside a block and this data is verified by a cluster of highly secured computers, this verified data is then attached to a chain.

This chain provides a direct transaction between the service provider and the user which increases the overall transparency of the process. This makes the overall process more efficient, and cheaper by eliminating the middlemen who mediate the data transfer process.

Working Mechanism of Blockchain

With blockchain technology, the data is hosted on a million of computers together as a network. This promotes decentralization and transparency. Using these highly secured peer-to-peer network the blocks of data are chained together to facilitate direct client-server interaction.

When the user inputs the data through a computer, then the data is secured in blocks using hashes and thereon divides the task related to it in related relevant networks. This promotes collective ownership of the data between the blocks in the network keeping it highly secured.

Why is Blockchain Technology the future?

Reference for further section: https://www.gartner.com/en/webinars/3858509/blockchain-special-report-what-to-expect-in-2018

Statistics and data are the best tool when talking about topics of extreme importance. So, let’s take a look at some of the data pieces to understand it better, “Why the economists and experts claim that the future belongs to blockchain?”

  • By 2025, 50% of the people who use a smartphone but don’t have access to traditional banking accounts, would have access to cryptocurrency accounts.
  • By 2023, 25% of the news and video content available over the internet would be authenticated as “real” using blockchain technologies.
  • By 2022, the cryptocurrency exchanges through multi-party computation for signoff and private key protection would see a phenomenal increase from 1% to 50% making them more transparent and secure.

From governance to the supply chains, to the stock trading market, blockchain would be intervening in all of them in the near future for making things more transparent and decentralized. According to Gartner, by 2023 blockchain platforms would be easy to use and would be readily used for achieving the objective of secure private transactions between users.

What to Expect in the Future?

Blockchain Technology provides you with a wide spectrum of benefits, not only limiting them to the increased transparency and decentralization. They also provide a variety of other associated benefits like making your data immutable, making the transactions less costly and saving our precious time. It would not be too optimistic if we claim, “Blockchain is most likely the pioneer to a whole new way of economic transactions, contributing immensely to global development.”

In the future we can expect blockchain technology to evolve and develop providing further pros like:

  • Easy to use: We can expect the blockchain technology to evolve itself in a way to be more easily accessible so that more and more people can benefit from it and understand it properly.
  •  Supporting private transactions readily and securely:  Blockchain technology is a technology for the future, because data-privacy is the top-most priority of enterprises nowadays. Blockchain is expected to provide a safer gateway for private transactions in the future making data-privacy a reality for such enterprises.
  • Scale and to interoperate: A technology cannot claim to be a success until it has been accepted by a large section of users. Soon we can expect blockchain to make itself readily accessible and scale to a large part of the global population.
  •  Provide the confidentiality that enterprises require: Businesses run on secrets, and secrets are meant to be kept. But this statement is a hard to achieve goal in today’s time, where we see data leaks in even the biggest of the tech giants every now and then. However, Blockchain is expected to bring a revolution in this arena, making data privacy a reality in the future, where your data is only yours.

The days are still to come when we will see seamless blockchain applications and cross-functionality of cryptocurrency, but already there are numerous positive developments on this taking place all over the world. According to the recent market predictions, by 2022 Tech-giants like Facebook, Uber, PayPal, eBay, Airbnb and other ecommerce platforms will be providing support enabled mobile cryptocurrency wallet services to a large part of this world. This would be the first step towards the large-scale use of blockchain in the future.

Conclusion

Finally, at the end of this discussion, what we can conclude is, “Data would be the most important element in the future, and one who owns the data is the king. So, to prevent misuse of your data and to ensure your data privacy in your businesses and in daily life interactions blockchain is the most relevant technology in the current situation. Not only does it provide you with data privacy but secures you from any possible threat that could have been triggered via the misuse of your data.” 

Budgeting 101

Budgeting 101 – Everything you Need to Know to Start the Perfect Budget

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Don’t let the word budgeting scare you. Too many of us think a budget is restricting, but that’s not the case. Setting up a budget gives you financial freedom, and more importantly, peace. It’s like giving your money a roadmap. It needs to know where to go and the only way is with a thought-out budget.

Use these steps to budget without feeling restricted.

1.    Determine your monthly income

You can’t budget until you know your total income. Gather all income documentation from any sources. For example, if you have a side hustle or receive child support/alimony include these numbers in your income.

2.    List your monthly expenses

To determine your monthly expenses pull your bank statements from the last 12 months. If you use credit cards, pull those statements too.

Write down each expense including monthly, semi-annual, and annual expenses. Include every expense, such as gifts, annual fees, real estate taxes, and car maintenance.

3.    Categorize your monthly expenses

Take your list of expenses and categorize them by fixed and variable expenses. Fixed expenses are anything necessary to live – housing, transportation, groceries, and medical expenses, are good examples.

Variable expenses are the categories you can play with if you find you’re coming up short. For example, you have to pay your mortgage to have a place to live, but you don’t have to have money to eat out several times a week if money is tight.

4.    Choose a budgeting method

You can budget however you want, but if you prefer to follow a specific program, here are the top budgeting plans:

  • 50/30/20 budget – Allocate 50% of your income to your fixed expenses, 30% to variable expenses, and 20% to savings/debt payoff. Budgeting this way gives you guidelines. You’ll quickly see if your fixed expenses are too high or if you overspend on ‘other expenses.’ Making your expenses fit into these parameters ensures you have money to save for emergencies or pay off debt.
  • Zero-based budget – This budget gives every dollar a ‘job.’ At the end of the month, your checking account should be at $0, but only because you assigned every dollar a job including paying bills, funding your variable expenses, funding an emergency account, saving for retirement, or paying off credit card debt.
  • Envelope method – If you like to use cash versus a credit/debit card, the envelope method keeps you on track. After listing out your expenses by category, assign a budget to each category and create an envelope for it. Fill each envelope with the allotted cash each month. Once you spend the cash in the envelope, you’re done spending in that category for the month.

5.    Choose a method to track your spending

After setting up a budget, you need to track it, without tracking you won’t know if you’re sticking to the budget.

There’s no right or wrong way to track your spending – the right method is the one you’ll use. Here are a few common ways most people track their budgets:

  • Budgeting app – Choose from a variety of budgeting apps available from free apps like Mint to subscription-based apps like You Need a Budget.
  • Spreadsheet – If you’re a numbers person and love spreadsheets, set up a budget on Excel or Google Sheets and track your spending. The key is you have to manually enter every transaction so make sure you’re capable of this (and will do it).
  • Pen and paper – If you aren’t a computer person and prefer pen and paper, that works too. But like tracking with a spreadsheet, you must be good about updating it daily.

6.    Be flexible

The final step is all about giving yourself grace. It’s okay if you set up a budget and it doesn’t work. Consider it a bit of trial and error when you start. Nothing is perfect and even after you’re at it for a while, life may change. You may change jobs, lose a job, or have an unexpected expense.

It’s okay if things go topsy turvy because when you have a budget, you’re aware and can make changes fast.

Learn How to Create your Budget

The right budget is the one you’ll use and feel good about. Budgeting shouldn’t feel restrictive or like a chore. It should feel empowering because it gives you control of your money – you know where you stand, what needs changing, and how well you’re saving for emergencies, rainy days, and the future.