In the face of economic uncertainty, the transformation of financial services post-Covid-19 is accelerating to adapt to new customer behaviours – including expecting their money and investments to finance a more sustainable economy.
At the forefront of this movement is Nicolas Meric, CEO and Founder of DreamQuark, a company committed to ethical and responsible AI. Using its solution Brain, DreamQuark helps wealth managers identify their next customers interested in sustainable finance and use AI to explain clearly why (and which) sustainable investments are the best investments for these customers. The company’s core brand values are transparency and ethics, developing responsible AI to ensure that we, as a society, keep control of this technology.
In this guest-authored piece for The Fintech Times, Nicolas describes the current state of sustainable finance, whilst discussing how the use of ethical artificial intelligence can better the environmental outcome of financial institutions.
The Covid-19 shockwave shed light on the fact that many sectors of the economy are lagging behind in terms of digital transformation. Supporting the growth of digital ecosystems is key to recovering from the current economic crisis and required investing in critical technologies like AI, but this focus must also extend to finding ways to build a more sustainable future.
A recent report from Greenpeace and WWF found that the amount of CO2 production financed by Britain’s banks and asset managers is nearly double the UK’s annual carbon emissions, highlighting the financial industry as one of the UK’s largest contributors to the climate crisis.
So how do we ensure a more sustainable future and why do banks and insurers need to harness the large-scale use of artificial intelligence to do this?
Responsible AI helps companies rethink how algorithms are built, deployed, maintained, and used so by helping wealth managers provide better investment advice to their customers through responsible AI, we can direct investment away from non-sustainable industries. Business users in the banking sector can also use AI to explain clearly why sustainable investments are the best option, with the aim to create a better future.
However, like any disruptive innovation, artificial intelligence can face obstacles to deployment, and the main fears around this technology lie in the perception of a lack of transparency about how it works. This opacity generates mistrust and slows the adoption of AI, but Responsible AI can dispel apprehensions and enable the confident use of this important technology.
With its unique approach on the market, DreamQuark humanises its algorithm by allowing it to analyse data without discrimination and coaches business users to recognise and fix biased data. Some might think that because there are algorithms, only automated decisions are being made, but we can instill a lot of human values in algorithms including fairness and ethics by being committed to ethical AI.
The future of financial services depends on the large-scale adoption of Responsible AI and the UK can no longer turn a blind eye to the City’s dirty little secret. Today more than ever, we need digital companies to shape our business models to accelerate the growth of major economic sectors and explore ways to develop a more sustainable future.
