Is AI the next industrial revolution?
The history of AI stretches back to Alan Turing’s amazing work at Bletchley Park, but we know how quickly transformation can occur – there is more computing power in the phone you may be reading this article on than what NASA had at its fingertips to put Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969.
One of my personal heroes was the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (can you tell my Bristol roots?) who had many claims to fame but by developing the Great Western Railway in the 1800s he enabled a change in society that meant goods could be transported at a quicker and cheaper rate, making them more accessible to all. Journey times from ports like Bristol and Liverpool to London, were reduced by over 75%.
This all sounds familiar when we hear the speed and scale at which AI is now starting to be deployed, and its benefit cases.
Acceleration of AI in 2025
I think it was 2019 when I first heard the word ‘AI’ being used in Financial Services circles, and I was told by one of the big 4 consultancies that anyone who says they are using AI is actually “just being very clever with data”. It's clear times have moved at a supersonic pace:
The FCA conducted its third survey about AI in 2024 which showed that 75% of firms responding are already using it – with a further 10% planning to use it over the next 3 years. This is up from 58% in a 2022 survey.
In January, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that AI will be one of the main ways the government plans to turbocharge economic growth and also bring increased productivity across the public sector. In the NHS, for example, gov.uk states that ‘It is being used to deliver better, faster, and smarter care: spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker, and getting people discharged quicker.’
Last month NatWest Group announced a collaboration with OpenAI that supports it’s simplification initiatives – confirming that they are currently working on over 275 AI projects, and GenAI has shown a 150% increase in customer satisfaction in some areas.
Many have viewed AI developments as cost-cutting exercises, and whilst automating and speeding up processes will inevitably lead to them being produced at lower cost (much like the railway in the 1800’s), it’s clear that improved risk management, fraud detection and customer satisfaction are very high on what companies want from their AI solutions.
How we help clients
In our discussions with clients, AI is now a consistent and regular topic across all practices:
Financial Crime – models are being developed across KYC/B frameworks including SAR review, transactional monitoring, CDD & EDD file builds & plausibility statements.
Compliance – fraud and risk detection are hot topics, and how models improve customer service and compliant handling. Use of data to understand customers and behaviours better is also leading to more tailored product propositions.
ESG – AI models give firms the ability to collect, manage, disclose and forecast relevant data. This all ultimately increases the credibility of work in this space.
Change and Transformation – project management tools and techniques are improved using AI capability and underpins much transformation activity we see.
Created by Nick Howell using ChatGPT
We can work with you to get ‘cut through’ on how AI can help your business and importantly how this impacts on your regulatory framework and the ‘checks and balances’ on outputs to ensure AI is working (or could work) for you in the right way.
We’ve also recently been engaged to lead a major benchmarking survey of a selection of top tier European banks to review exactly these points.
Get in touch with the team to learn more about how we can help navigate you through this revolution.
Of course you can also use AI for fun things like making Lego mini figures – I’m sure Brunel would approve!