Artificial Intelligence for Finance Executives

Book excerpt: We often hear that AI is revolutionising the financial sector, like no other technology has done before. This book looks beyond these clichés and explores all aspects of this transformation at a deep level. It spells out a vision for the future and answers many questions that are routinely ignored. What do we mean by Artificial Intelligence in finance? How do we move past the myths and misconceptions to reveal the key driving forces? What are the industry trends that align with this transformation? Is it the explosion of digital touchpoints in retail, the reduced risk taking by investment banks, or the ascent of passive funds in asset management? How do we develop concrete use cases from idea generation to production? How do we engineer systems to make accurate predictions, offer recommendations to clients, or analyse unstructured news data? How do we build a successful data-driven organisation? What are the key pitfalls to avoid? Is it about culture, data governance, or management vision? What are the risks specific to developing AI technologies? Can we humans understand and explain what the machines produce for us? Can we trust their predictions or actions? What is the role of alternative data in all this? How can we put it to use for augmented insight? What are the problems that AI is well equipped to solve? Is it all about neural networks and deep learning, as we regularly hear in the popular press? How do we understand human language, a task so important to the financial analyst?  The book is packed with concrete examples from the various disciplines of finance. Interested readers will also develop a deep understanding of AI algorithms - presented in plain English - and learn how to solve the most challenging problems. But first and foremost, it is a practical book that equips finance executives with everything they need to understand this transformation and to become agents of change themselves.