With the advent of digital and most recently with the latest Artificial Intelligence innovations, financial services are being disrupted and deeply transformed. In order to discuss the impact of AI, Laurent Nizri welcomed Nicolas Théry (Chairman, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale) and Nuno Sebastiao (CEO, Feedzai) during the first day of the Paris Fintech Forum, which took place on January 29th at the Palais Brongniart.

The discussion started with Nicolas Théry clarifying the term "AI", which he described as a "fantasy", and using the term "cognitive technology" instead. According to him, this tech aims at helping banks, and notably Crédit Mutuel, with the access to dada, the personalization of its use, with the main mission to turn these pieces of information into qualified relationships with the customers and eventually profitability.

The experts at Crédit Mutuel have notably been working on emails selection, which helps employees find the correct information and indirectly answers to the needs of customers. "The problem is not about data but rather about exploiting them. Also, it needs to be transformed into relationship and profitability. The goal is to combine technology with Human relationships," added the Chairman of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, who continued: "Banks are about advice, not automation. My own personal belief? Our job is to address the implicit question".

On the other hand, startups including Freezdai are leveraging Machine Learning in order to prevent fraud and improve its detection. As he explained, things are rapidly changing in the world of finance and customers are now willing to switch banks for more intuitive and digital services. Nuno Sebastiao even added: "The industry is not boring anymore!". His company specializes in fraud detection in order to "protect the world's largest banks, merchants and processors with the most advanced machine learning technology". He also said other uses of AI and ML can help transform the banking industry, and notably robo-advisory – which according to him is still in its infancy – consisting in sharing the best advice to avoid risk. The CEO of Feedzai also explained that today, most people have already seen the impact and have been in contact with AI.

Nicolas Théry then shared three areas where Crédit Mutuel can progress when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence: identification in terms of scalability – meaning the integration of AI in today's scalable and secure systems –, the combination between AI, visual recognition and voice recognition – 3 of the biggest technological trends that are to impact industries across the world – and being able to actually transform technology into a global and proactive advice. He added: "the challenge is to take the initiative to later offer real estate credit, new forms of products, etc". Also, according to the Chairman of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, AI can be seen as a training tool, as it raises many questions: "less qualified people are actually using AI to address their questions. A very efficient way to train them".

On the topic of payments and AI, Nuno Sebastiao explained that historically, payments requested a physical presence through the use of a card or lately with a smartphone. "Fraud was then easy to understand. But in the current digital environment, companies are working on profiling which, through the use of Machine Learning, helps them to provide continuous user underwriting, in real time". The expert also highlighted that AI brings many benefits to merchants especially when it comes to logistics and stock management.

Finally, Nicolas Théry underlined that in order for the banking sector to transform and reinvent itself, building ecosystems which allow banks and Fintech startups to collaborate and innovate together, was the key to success.

 

Alexandre Keilmann

Photo: Steven Reti