Financial industry grappling with AI’s gifts and perils, executives say

The spread of artificial intelligence-based systems offers big opportunities for financial services firms, executives say, but asset managers also face higher stakes than other consumer facing businesses because they manage sensitive information.

For example, AI systems could be better than humans at explaining to clients why they arrived at recommendations like portfolio allocations or lending decisions, said Zack Kass, a former head of business partnerships at OpenAI. People, he said, are not good at explaining subconscious biases that could affect such decisions.