Financial services companies have a tremendous opportunity to reimagine their operations with AI, from creating more personalized customer engagements and better detecting fraudulent activity to realizing future business models and new revenue streams. But as many companies have learned, realizing the promise of AI comes with a number of challenges.
First and foremost, there’s the persistent challenge of finding and retaining the right talent. In its ‘AI Adoption in the Enterprise 2021’ report, O’Reilly found that a lack of skilled workers and hiring difficulties was the top barrier to AI adoption with about one in five business professionals citing it as a problem.
Then there are the many other sensitivities and challenges that companies must negotiate in trying to harness the power of AI. These can include security risks, ethics concerns and determining how to best use AI to address their unique needs. For example, KPMG found that two-thirds of financial services companies struggle to select the best AI technologies.
To help navigate these challenges and unlock the potential of AI in their business, many financial services companies have turned to the same place: Ireland. Why? Because the country is delivering on its commitment to bolster AI talent, innovation and adoption through a combination of education and research initiatives, a collaborative innovation ecosystem, and support for foreign investments.
A talent and innovation powerhouse
For decades, Ireland’s talent base has made the country a destination for some of the biggest names in tech.
Today, about 55% of people aged 25 to 34 in Ireland hold a third-level degree compared to a 40% EU average. And when it comes to AI, according to LinkedIn, Ireland has the highest ratio of AI professionals working within the EU.
At the same time, Ireland is taking planned actions to prepare its workforce for driving and adopting AI, as outlined in the country’s national AI strategy which complements its niche expertise in trustworthy AI. And that’s in addition to other efforts already underway to strengthen the country’s pipeline of tech talent from academia to industry.
For example, the payments company Stripe and the University of Limerick have developed a first of its kind computer science degree in Immersive Software Engineering. The effort emphasizes learning through hands-on projects over lectures, with students spending nearly half their time in paid residencies with other companies such as Amazon, Mastercard, Fiserv, and Shopify.
Ireland also has the highest per capita number of European AI fellows working within its academic institutions.
Among the work they’re doing is collaborating with industry to investigate the application of the next generation of scalable and trustworthy AI algorithms in driving the future of financial services in areas such as investment portfolio optimization, omnichannel payment analytics, digital identity and onboarding, ESG based risk modeling and real-time payment integrity in insurance.
One new research initiative, EMPOWER, aims to unleash AI’s full potential by helping find alignment between business goals and societal needs. The initiative is being led by industry and supported by the Irish government through its science and technology funding agency, Science Foundation Ireland. The goal is to develop a global data ecosystem that governs the vast amounts of data used in today’s information supply chains while addressing challenges in areas like privacy, consent, and data reliability and reproducibility. Meta, among other companies, is investing half a million euro in two research projects within the 4-year programme.
Industry success stories
Some of the biggest names in financial services have established and are growing technology teams in Ireland that are transforming how they do business using AI and other innovations.
For example, the 1,000 technologists that Fidelity Investments employs in Ireland are using emerging technologies to improve customer interactions and internal operations. Among the team’s innovations is an AI-driven multilingual virtual assistant to provide text-based natural language question-answering services for the company’s more than 30 million investors.
Mastercard Ireland is currently significantly expanding its European Technology Hub in Dublin with another 1,500 jobs. The hub also harnesses the power of AI, cloud, AR/VR and blockchain to develop solutions in areas like payment processing, fraud detection, cybersecurity resilience, digital currencies and customer intelligence.
JP Morgan also recently launched its Dublin Cyber Hub, the company’s first such hub outside of the US. An initial team of about 50 is focused on building in-house, AI-based cybersecurity technologies to protect its cloud-based digital banking infrastructure. The company also has plans to expand the hub’s operations in the coming years to supports efforts in not only AI but also existing areas of competence like blockchain, public Cloud Computing, and site reliability engineering.
Support for investments
A reputation as a strong, stable and smart place to do business only strengthens the case for why it makes sense to innovate in Ireland.
The country is known for its pro-business environment and policies. It’s the only English-speaking country within the EU and provides access to the market’s 450 million consumers. And in addition to its own young and talented workforce, Ireland offers access to the larger EU workforce that is 250 million strong.
Support is also available to international companies seeking to establish AI or other R&D operations in Ireland.
For example, IDA Ireland can make a significant percentage contribution toward a company’s R&D budget in the form of direct grant payment against eligible budgetary expenditure over a three-year period. Companies can also take advantage of a 25% tax credit on eligible R&D expenditure in Ireland.
All combined make investing in Ireland the right strategic choice for financial services companies that want to leverage top talent and research happening in the realm of AI – and it makes good business sense.
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