A GenAI roadmap for financial services: who needs humans anyway?
Humans should just get out of the way and let GenAI do its job!
Read this carefully to see why humans get in the way!
“GenAI performs best when humans act as complementors of GenAI output, taking over tasks that fall outside AI’s domain of expertise (as in the predictive AI example of credit scoring). But when humans act as enhancers—taking the output and trying to make it better—they can significantly diminish the value of using AI.”
👉TAKEAWAYS:
Build GenAI into your roadmap:
The hype and confusion surrounding “generative AI” (GenAI) have caused many executives to question their existing “predictive AI” strategies. The two complement each other and should run in parallel.
The Boundaries of AI’s Capabilities and human’s
Understand the dividing line between jobs better suited to humans and AI. Don’t think that humans can help! (see chart above)
Reimagine AI-Enabled End-to-End Solutions That Reshape Entire Journeys
Companies see greater impact and capture more value when they holistically reimagine entire processes end-to-end and with AI. Redesigning processes from the ground up.
Beyond Tweaking—Transformation
The big wins from AI consistently come from broad transformations that involve rethinking how an entire process works within an AI landscape.
Golden Patterns
Although numerous constellations of AI use are possible, many big opportunities marry predictive AI and GenAI in complementary ways—following basic patterns.
Focus the Journey on People and Process, Not Just on Tech
Rapid advances in AI make it all too easy to become fixated on the technology. However, softer success factors, such as people, organizational structure, and talent, are all deciding factors.
Prioritize Governance, Defining Your Own Rules of the Road
Only when a strong AI governance framework's safeguards are in place will it be possible to gain acceptance of and trust for AI solutions.
BCG’s “Golden Patterns” all use a combination of GenAI and Predictive AI.
👊STRAIGHT TALK👊
So BCG makes it very clear that if you think that humans will be what is commonly referred to as a “copilot” for AI, you better think again. GenAI does the specific jobs assigned to it better than humans!
If that isn’t a shocker, nothing is! Yes, humans will still be required to do jobs that require skills that GenAI or Predictive AI can’t master, but humans are not necessary and are not advised to participate in jobs GenAI can do well. Humans get in the way!
BCG does very well in this report by focusing on AI's transformational nature. This requires companies to reevaluate their processes, discard the old ones, and build new ones suitable for AI.
Many managers will find it challenging to adopt this mindset. Most will want to integrate AI into their existing workflow, something they’ve likely spent years perfecting. Instead, a new workflow needs to be integrated into AI!
In my book “Innovation Lab Excellence, " I wrote that digital transformation is about people, not technology. I’m glad to see that BCG holds the same opinion about AI!
It is far too easy to be absorbed by the tech and forget that, even with GenAI at work, banks, and other financial institutions are, at least for now, still run by and for people.
What is clear is that all financial institutions will need fewer people sooner than we thought!
