Unlocking the Future of Finance: How Data and AI are Transforming Customer Experiences at Standard Chartered Bank

Welcome to the inaugural Money 2020 Middle East.

We're here at the Riyadh exhibition and convention Center.

Now you know we cannot have a conversation at one of these conferences without talking about the power of data and AI and I've got the perfect person to break it all down for us, and that is Mohammad Rahim, the group chief data officer for Standard Chartered Bank.

That is a big, big job.

It is indeed, thank you for welcoming me, Patricia, much appreciated.

So you know, you've been here at the conference talking about the power of data in finance.

Um, how are you at Standard Charter leveraging this power?

So one of the biggest changes we're making is actually we're learning from you as journalists around how to use data and the power of data, and that is telling stories because data is only good when it applies the right context.

So for example, if I take your name, Patricia, your name is probably irrelevant to someone who just does accounting and wants to reconcile numbers, but your name is.

Extremely important to someone who does financial crime and money laundering detection.

So what we're starting to do is we're trying to take data, apply context, but more importantly, tell stories with data because people don't remember facts, they remember stories, right?

So my phrase, my go to phrase as I move forward is, Don't tell me the facts, tell me the story.

So data is only as good as the story you can tell with it.

Ah, that's so true because you think of oral tradition, right?

Humans, that's how we learn things was telling stories.

So why is that so important?

What do you, what do you, um, how are you utilizing these stories?

So it all started with a quote I remember from Maya Angelou, which is, you'll forget what I said, you'll understand what I teach you, but you'll never forget how I made you feel.

Stories make you feel something powerful.

This is why we love Hollywood.

So what are we doing?

We're not making everything into Hollywood, but we're trying to understand our customer journeys.

And being able to tell stories through customer journeys.

Why is a customer wanting to spend money in a certain way?

Why do they spend money at a certain time of the month?

Why is it always concentrated at that time?

And then there's a lull period.

So we try and understand patterns, but not just understand the pattern.

We tell the story and the story isn't just what it means for the customer.

But what it means for the entire industry, for example, what risk does that manifest to the economy when the customer is just spending at the same time?

What does it do to our system volatility and stability to be able to manage that system when the when the customers are transferring money at that same time?

So it's about understanding the data points, extracting those data points and and tell that story a broader perspective.

That's how we're, that's how we're trying to change the way we use data.

Ah, so it boils down to that human connection, even though we're talking about technology.

Yes, yes.

And I guess same with AI.

Absolutely.

So in my talk yesterday I talked about three stages of AI narrow AI, artificial general intelligence, and superintelligence.

But then I ended that by saying, what's really important is we move into the era of human super super intelligence.

Why is that important?

Because today AI operates in one domain.

It's either a chat GPT or it's a driverless car.

Chat GPT can't drive your car, whereas humans are multi-domained.

You can drive a car, you can write an email, and you can cook your dinner.

Now what we need to do as humans is we need to learn more multi-domain skills.

So for example, if you're a researcher, you're very good at research, but are you also very good at telling stories?

So humans need to learn to have mastery, not just one subject.

In two subjects, and that's where we can leverage AI to become masters in more than just one subject, and that's how we're going to become smarter and interact with AI in the right way as we move forward.

So how are we gonna do that and when is this gonna happen?

That's a great question.

How we do that is we need to upskill.

We need to learn new skills.

So what are those new skills?

Skill number one is you hear about prompting AI, you know, learning how to prompt AI properly.

I don't call it prompting, I call it commanding.

And the reason is because I feel like the human should be commanding AI.

We're the masters, right?

At least I'd like to think that we're the masters.

Well, we are right now, and it needs to continue that way.

So I call it commanding.

How do you learn to command AI?

That's a really important skill.

Second skill, I think is storytelling.

What you do really well as journalists.

We need to get better at it as human beings, right?

Because we need to be able to.

Use the output from AI and know what to do with it.

Tell the story.

Third one, greater accountability.

We need, we need to know in our hearts we are accountable, not AI, right?

The 3rd 1, the sorry, the 4th 1 is recognizing that.

The human intelligence in some cases is more superior than AI.

So I'll give you an example.

Have you ever used the words I love you with all my head or mind?

Now what do you say?

My heart?

Yes.

And what is that?

That's your heart intelligence, right?

So there's a difference between your heart intelligence and your mind intelligence.

Now when we look at AI today, AI is getting as good as our mind intelligence.

It's nowhere near as good as our heart intelligence, right?

How do you get it there though?

I, I think it's gonna be very difficult for AI to be as, as um uh to have that intelligence of our heart.

Well, that's a good thing, isn't it?

Otherwise, what would we have that AI doesn't have as humans?

And that's our competitive advantage.

It's that heart intelligence, right?

And we need to zone in on that more as we start moving into a phase of how the world adopts AI.

Right, and speaking of like adopting AI with all of this tremendous innovation and opportunity also comes risk.

How do you balance that, especially in financial services?

So that the one of the biggest skills.

Everybody needs to learn.

Not just bankers or people who use AI in corporations, but end users like me and you that use Chat GPT or Cloud or DeepSeek, whatever we use.

We need to understand the risks of AI.

Now if you think about it.

You are feeding Whatever tool you're using, if it's chat GPT, your data, yeah.

So you need to understand what are the risks of that, right?

There could be security risks.

That could get hacked There could be interpretation risks.

Right.

How is AI interpreting your data and giving you insights?

There could be hallucination risks.

We've seen that, right?

We've seen, you know, you ask Cha GPT to create a picture of Paris and it plants the Burj Khalifa in Paris, right?

We've seen that.

So people need to become more accustomed to what the risks are and become more aware.

We need to have our risk antennas up a lot higher, and the education around that really needs to improve because.

AI technology is growing exponentially.

AI safety is growing in a linear way.

Right.

And that needs to improve.

So what is the single most important thing the industry can do now to address that risk is I imagine as a group chief data officer that would keep me up at night.

It comes down to literacy, education, understanding what are the risks and doing this in a safe and cautious way.

The technology can advance.

But we shouldn't use it unless if we're fully comfortable with the risks.

Right.

We had driverless cars a long time ago.

We didn't start using them.

Waymo didn't come out till a lot later until we were comfortable of the risks, but driverless cars have existed for a long time, and it's the same with AI.

We need to really understand what the risks are, take a cautious approach, uh, before we start deploying them, and that's really important for us to not get too excited and start deploying in this everywhere until we really understand the risks.

And one thing before I let you go, we were talking about trends earlier, and this really caught my attention.

You were talking about something that is near and dear to my heart.

I have way too many apps on this day, and you said that that's gonna be going away.

Yeah, so if the industry get this gets this right.

The way AI is moving to is a concept called the natural interface.

Today you have a user interface and you have multiple user interfaces.

You have an app for your social media, an app for your banking, an app for booking a taxi, and that for staying connected with friends and family.

The world is moving to a place where you'd have one app that almost rules them all.

Where you log into that one app and you command, not prompt, command that app to upload a picture from your photos album onto Instagram or to and at the same time book me a taxi to the airport while I'm while I'm at it.

At the same time message your mom.

I'm heading to the airport.

That natural user interface will allow you to interact with many apps at once, and that technology is not coming.

Many organizations are now integrating apps using an AI natural interface.

Well, that sounds wonderful not to have all those apps on my phone, but then all of your data is going to be concentrated in one place.

What about the risks there?

That's why we've got to do this in a cautious and safe way.

They're like the driverless cars.

We've got to make sure we're comfortable with the risks, and we take this in a slow way.

Because, you know, when driverless cars came out, everyone was scared and concerned about them, but when they ran the data, they found that in most cases it was safer than a human driving.

Right, so we've got to understand the risks in context of what we have today.

Is it reducing the risks today?

Is it creating more risks today?

Can we do this in a slow way?

And these are the things we have to do slowly and gradually.

We can't get too excited, even though the technology is there, we've got to do this safely.

But when you talk about innovation, people don't usually use the word slow, right?

It's just that that race to, to roll out that new product.

So what's your one piece of advice?

How do you balance, you know?

Innovating And doing it in a safe cautious way.

You have to be conscious um of what you're, what context you're doing this in.

If you're just doing this for yourself, and you're willing to take the risk yourself that it's your data and I wanna put all my apps because it's more more convenient, then you can take that risk.

You might be more willing to take the risk than I am.

And someone else might be less willing, but if you are a corporation like Standard Chartered Bank.

You have customers to serve.

And we are obligated to serve our customers in the right way.

So we've got to do this safely and we've got to protect our customers because as banks, one of the biggest reasons clients bank with us is to keep their money safe.

That's why banks existed in the first place.

So we've got to hold true to that, right?

We have to innovate.

We have to innovate in a way that's true to our customer experience.

So what do you think will be coming down the pipeline for your customers in the near future, in the far future, any predictions, any insights?

Is the way they interact with their bank will change.

Today they interact either through calling uh.

A call center or they go on to their app to transfer money.

They will be able to interact with an AI agent.

Either through voice or texting.

So imagine you, you wake up in the morning, you're having breakfast, you have your mobile app open.

You can just talk to it and say, How are my investments doing?

In comparison to how the markets did and The app will understand your risk profile, Patricia.

If it knows you don't like risky investments, it will say, your portfolio is doing well, but there are some less risky investments you might want to explore.

Here are some options.

So you, the way you interact with your bank is going to change completely.

It will become.

More personalized but it will also become Faster in terms of the information you can receive.

For example, today, if you have a mortgage.

You call up your bank and you say, I just won the lottery.

So I want to pay off my mortgage.

And what does the bank sometimes say?

Well, you can, but you have to pay a fee, right?

Right.

But they don't know the answer.

They'll say, Patricia, wait 5 minutes.

Let me check all the policies.

And then they come back and they say I need another 5 minutes cause there's another policy because it's in a different language.

So imagine AI you interacting with an AI agent.

You ask the question.

You can read the policies, translate the policies into the language you want, and give you the answer without making you wait 10 minutes.

Listening to terrible hold music.

Yes.

You can listen to your own music.

It will know what kind of music I want.

Yes.

Interesting time as we live it.

I could talk to you all day about this stuff, but I think I have to let you go.

So thank you so much for your insights.

You're very welcome.

Thank you for inviting me.