Top 3 Challenges in AI Faced by UK Financial Services Firms

Financial services companies in the U.K. recognize the business value of deploying AI, but they also face multiple challenges to fully unlock its benefits, according to a survey.

More than 75% of finance technology executives said their firms are already using AI models and algorithms, but they face hurdles ranging from lack of skillsets to technical problems in implementation.

The top three challenges faced by the U.K. financial services industry are keeping pace with the speed of model and data growth (78%), hiring staff with the right skills in AI/ML (70%) and finding or customizing models and algorithms (67%), according to a report by SambaNova Systems, an AI applications platform provider.

“Progressive business leaders are realizing the value of AI. However, benefiting from it requires technology teams to deliver; this is where difficulty surfaces for most organizations in the financial sector,” said Marshall Choy, senior vice president at SambaNova, in a statement.  

Banking leaders believe that AI brings value, with more than half saying the business impact will be “transformational” or “will significantly improve the business” over the next 12 to 24 months, according to the report.

However, technical proficiencies are the limiting factor.

Finding employees with across-the-board tech skills already is a challenge but finding staff with AI expertise is “particularly” tough. Even though companies have the money (52%) to hire for their AI teams, 70% said finding them is challenging. More than half also said employee retention is problematic as well.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find an area of technology that is being developed more intensely than AI,” said Chris Kenny, SambaNova’s general manager for the EMEA market. “The opportunity these models deliver is there for the taking, although technology teams often don’t have the resources or expertise to take advantage of the opportunity.”

“For enterprises struggling to deliver on business leaders’ demands, deploying AI as a service is a fast track, scalable way to avoid falling behind their competitors,” Kenny added.