- Cloud users in financial firms up 54 percentage points in four years
- Key AI hurdles are siloed legacy systems and poor data quality
- Only 15-30% are mature in AI, predictive analytics and automation
Financial firms are still battling the challenges of effectively leveraging cloud technologies despite the positive opportunities, new research has claimed.
A Capgemini report states most (91%) of the 600 leaders and 120 execs it surveyed now report having adopted at least one cloud platform, up considerably from just 37% in 2020, likely driven by the sudden pandemic-induced shift in working patterns and the subsequent boom in AI tech.
However, fewer than two in five execs report high satisfaction with their outcomes so far.
Banks are struggling with cloud, AI
Banks and other highly regulated industries have been late to join the AI party given that they must adhere to stringent data protection and security measures, however it’s now their turn to adopt emerging tech and it seems that they haven’t observed and addressed the challenges that early adopters have had to overcome.
More than two-thirds of industry execs are concerned about siloed legacy systems (71%), the protection of customer data (70%) and poor data quality, such as incorrect and missing information (69%). Artificial intelligence requires a strong data foundation to be at its most effective.
“With generative AI now top of the boardroom agenda, a cloud-based technology foundation can also help the industry maximize investment in new technologies at scale,” noted Ravi Khokhar, Global Head of Cloud for Financial Services at Capgemini.
Moreover, many respondents consider AI (81%), predictive analytics (75%) and robotic process automation (65%) to be crucial for supporting their cloud ecosystem, but maturity in those areas sits at 15%, 30% and 22% respectively.
To put the opportunities into perspective, 31% of banks and insurers identified as ‘innovators’ exceed targets in cross-selling, upselling and data monetization, compared with 10-12% of non-innovators.
Looking ahead, and with emerging regulations like Europe’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act coming into force, Capgemini is calling for the financial sector to “apply a data-driven, cloud-focused approach.”