11 hours Ago By Lauren Hinton
Are you optimistic about the rise of AI? You’d be forgiven for having some reservations. At the FTT Fintech Festival , at The Brewery in London, we asked exhibitors, experts and attendees what they really thought about this hot topic. Turns out there’s a healthy mix of cautious innovation in financial services.
Watch the video for some great insights on what the future could hold. Read on to get a good overview of what was discussed. AI is certainly the biggest topic of the day, and it typically elicits a varied response.
Nonetheless, it’s having more and more of an impact on financial services and many fintechs are growing on the promise of their AI enhanced offerings. In the UK 75% of firms are already using artificial intelligence (AI) , with a further 10% planning to use AI over the next three years. It’s increasingly being put to good use in areas such as risk management , fraud detection and customer relationship management.
Understandably, the sentiment around AI among attendees and exhibitors at the FTT Fintech Festival was varied, with responses ranging from unbridled optimism to cautious pessimism, and a few falling somewhere in between. Here’s a snapshot of the diverse opinions shared: Some participants, like Varnika Vijayakumar from Okta, expressed a balanced viewpoint, recognizing AI’s potential benefits while emphasizing the importance of retaining a “human element” in its application. Glen Keller echoed this sentiment, highlighting that AI has both positive and negative implications, depending on how it’s used.
Of course there are many who are fully on board. Optimism was a dominant theme among many interviewees. Matthew Bell from Telesign was straightforwardly optimistic, whilst another speaker shared her enthusiasm but stressed the need for regulatory oversight to ensure responsible use.
Coral Kratenstein from OpenPayd highlighted AI’s ability to streamline internal processes, improve efficiency, and drive business growth. Similarly, Maciej Nasalski from Space IT noted its potential to simplify lives, and Alex Jones from Keyless supported AI’s use, provided it is handled responsibly. Not everyone was quite as upbeat and perhaps refreshingly, offered some of the human concerns many people not embedded in the day to day of technology feel.
Kate Bolton from Comms for Good was happy to admit she was pessimistic, feeling that AI generates “too much noise,” which may overshadow meaningful progress. David Tyrell from IPQualityScore acknowledged AI’s potential but pointed out that for it to have the outcomes we want it needs better data than we currently have, pointing to a foundational challenge in AI’s effectiveness. Several common threads emerged throughout the interviews.
The most frequently mentioned points included the necessity of responsible use, the critical role of regulations, and the ongoing need for high-quality data. Attendees agreed that while AI offers vast opportunities, these need to be tempered by thoughtful implementation to ensure its benefits outweigh the risks. This mix of enthusiasm, caution, and realism paints a nuanced picture of how fintech professionals and enthusiasts view AI and one that we’ve seen before in other videos.
We’d be interested to know what you think. To watch more videos from this great conference, head to our website ..
