谢林马修, CEO of AI Tech UK; David Gardner, head of fintech at TLT LLP; 伊莱恩 Mullan, head of marketing and business development at Corlytics and Alex Mackenzie, Ryft创始人.
作为2024年金融科技大会的一部分, the question posed to our afternoon panel was ‘is Manchester the secret weapon of AI-powered fintech’? 大卫·阿维斯精彩地主持了小组讨论, AND Digital的客户服务经理, and our panel brought together a cross section of experts from the fintech sector in Manchester. 他们是谢林·马修, CEO of AI Tech UK; David Gardner, head of fintech at TLT LLP; 伊莱恩 Mullan, head of marketing and business development at Corlytics and Alex Mackenzie, Ryft创始人.
The first question posed by our chair David was around the challenges to using AI in the fintech world, 包括监管方面的挑战.
谢林, 谁在人工智能领域工作了20年, said: “Everyone’s racing into AI but aren’t always aware of the regulations so they risk damage to their reputation.”
伊莱恩, who works in reg tech for a business that is headquartered in Dublin but is based in Manchester, 解释, “虽然我们看到人工智能驱动的金融科技取得了重大进步, 围绕人工智能的监管仍在迎头赶上. T在这里 are gaps in oversight and what hasn’t happened yet is as critical as what has. The lack of statutory regulation in the UK means the goalposts haven’t been set yet. We need clear forward-looking AI regulations to ensure innovation doesn’t outpace safety and trust.”
David Gardner说:“作为一家律师事务所, 我们对金融科技领域的人工智能持乐观态度, 但确实有很多挑战. T在这里 are some very interesting problems to solve in order to safely and successfully implement AI solutions. We are also looking at how to use AI in three ways: within our own business, 改善我们对客户的服务, 并为他们的人工智能战略和项目提供建议.”
Alex said, “We’re a classic fintech business so AI doesn’t fit into our core business model. 然而，我们一直在尝试生成人工智能. We tested it against one of our underwriters - the underwriter took eight hours to do a task, 相比之下，人工智能15分钟的报告更好. 这对我们来说真的是一个游戏规则的改变者.”
Our chair David then asked the panel what skills gap needed to be addressed in Manchester to further power our fintech sector using AI.
谢林解释, “成功的人工智能的三个关键要素是知识, 领导与治理, 所以我们需要在所有这些领域提高技能.”
伊莱恩 compared Manchester to Dublin, which is a leading fintech city. “都柏林有四所大学, which work closely with enterprise and have spawned a lot of fintech companies. 然而，作为一个城市，它确实存在经济适用房的问题. Manchester on the other hand has all the ingredients to rival Dublin - access to talent from three universities, a supportive ecosystem and a lower cost base - including housing and office space. Manchester can definitely build on this and have the success that Dublin has had.”
This led onto a really important question about how AI would affect the workforce of the future. 大卫·加德纳说, 就像亚历克斯举的例子, 人工智能可以越来越快地完成某些任务, 具有相似或更好的输出质量, 成本更低, 让企业用更少的资源做更多的事情. However, of course this affects the team members who currently are responsible for these tasks. 考虑人工智能的部署, we have focussed on how the people performing these roles can shift their focus to top-level advisory and relationship building tasks, 由人工智能支持和增强. 结果并不总是这样, and t在这里 is a further challenge when generative AI means robots start to be capable of advising too!
“最重要的是, 另一个重点是在Covid大流行期间, many people have lost the opportunity and ability to work closely with others, 学习如何建立人际关系和说服他人. 年轻的劳动力可能会为此更加挣扎, 如果建立关系是成功的关键组成部分.”
When the conversation moved onto whether Manchester is an attractive destination to build a business, 亚历克斯有一些非常有趣的亲身经历. 他解释说, “9个月前我们进行A轮融资时, the question we always got asked from the US was how far we are away from London. We also found that our business valuation was lower due to us being in Manchester, so we opened a satellite office in London and changed our address purely to increase our valuation. 我们称之为全球最大的博彩平台税.
“Overall, we’ve seen that t在这里 just isn’t enough investment coming 在这里. I’ve seen some great fintech startups close their doors because they couldn’t get more funding. T在这里’s definitely a gap 在这里 and Manchester does need more investment to grow as a fintech hub.”
The final question asked how Manchester can become a global leader. The unanimous opinion was around being ethical and having the development of AI regulation.
谢林 said: “T在这里 is a huge opportunity with AI if we take a different approach. 坚持我们的价值观，诚实守信. 做一些别人没有做过的事情. 展示一个诚实、道德和完全合规的金融科技生态系统.” David Gardner agreed that ethical and well-governed innovation can and should be aligned with success, 不被视为实现这一目标的障碍.
伊莱恩 summed up her view: “AI is revolutionising fintech but the conversation needs to include its governance. We must strike a balance between fostering innovation and implementing the right regulations to protect consumers and business. 全球最大的博彩平台在引领英国这一对话方面处于有利地位.”
Manchester Digital would like to say a huge thanks to all of the panel and our chair for their thoughtful and insightful comments. If you’d like to find out more about our upcoming events, keep an eye on our 事件日历 关注我们的社交媒体账号.
You can also read the summary of the rest of our Fintech Conference 2024 在这里.
