By Alice Chambers |
Financial services firms face a stark choice: adapt to generative AI or risk obsolescence.
“With the internet – you would’ve become irrelevant if you didn’t make a website,” said Marinela Profi, global market strategy lead for AI agents and generative AI at SAS, at Sibos 2025. “A similar thing will happen in the next 10 years with AI.”
Profi spoke in a panel discussion – moderated by Paul Hindle, editor at FinTech Futures – on the ROI of generative AI alongside Keri Smith, global banking data and AI lead at Accenture, and Bill Borden, corporate vice president of worldwide financial services at Microsoft.
The conversation began with a recognition of AI’s transformative impact.
“I don’t even remember my life anymore before ChatGPT,” joked Profi, as she urged firms to assess AI’s value across multiple layers, from operational gains to cultural and organisational shifts. She described how AI “sparkled a new way [of working] between different departments” and stressed that its power lies in aligning with business goals.
Smith focused on readiness, noting that adoption depends on organisational literacy, flexible infrastructure and data preparedness. “What is my organisation’s ability to adapt to change?” she asked, framing adaptability as a key driver of value.
Borden highlighted a broader perspective: “Some institutions spend time on use case return and others rethink their business model and just get on with it because [AI] is going to change the industry. AI plays a role in how you compete with your customers… how you do business differently.”
Implementation, the panel agreed, is as much about trust as technology.
“You’re not just launching a tool, you’re redesigning the entire workflow… people don’t use AI because it’s cool, they use it because it makes their lives easier,” said Profi.
Smith highlighted transparency and co-creation with employees, while Borden emphasised leadership’s role in sparking curiosity and reinforcing trust across the organisation: “The cultural message from CEO to employee is important… top-down usage and trust is really big.”
Borden also stressed the importance of skill-building, starting with “bite-size chunks – Outlook, then Excel, then PowerPoint.”
Addressing the AI productivity paradox (when organisations implementing AI technologies often fail to see a corresponding increase in overall productivity with revenue), Profi cautioned that improving isolated tasks won’t deliver real ROI. “Leaders ask why things haven’t improved overall,” she said. “The answer is because the systems haven’t been redesigned.”
Borden pointed to Wells Fargo’s generative AI agent, which reduced internal response times from 10 minutes to 30 seconds across thousands of branches, as an example of holistic redesign paying off.
Looking forward, the panel urged firms to treat AI as a strategic enabler rather than a standalone tool.
Smith emphasised that nurturing AI creatively unlocks new possibilities and Borden stressed understanding “the art of the possible” to set ambitious goals.