Technology has always played a significant role in finance. Artificial Intelligence is of tremendous interest to the financial services industry as it has the potential to enrich and reshape the financial landscape.
The Financial Services Innovation Lab at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business organized a full-day conference, "Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Finance," on November 3, 2023, to delve into the latest developments in AI and how they are impacting the finance industry. The conference provided a platform for technical discussions, industry insights, and a hands-on workshop dedicated to implementing large language models (LLMs) in finance.
Opening the event were remarks from the leadership at Georgia Tech, including Chaouki Abdallah, executive vice president for Research; Jonathan Clarke, interim dean of the Scheller College of Business; and Anuj Mehrotra, dean-elect of the Scheller College of Business. Following the opening remarks, six undergraduate Fintech Fellows were recognized for their outstanding research contributions and active involvement with the Financial Services Innovation Lab.
Throughout the day, three dedicated sessions tackled topics such as the "Future of Generative AI and Financial Services," "Practical Perspectives on Implementing AI in Financial Services," and "Ensuring Fairness in Financial Services: The Role of Explainable AI." The conference concluded with a panel discussion titled "View From the C-Suite: Promises and Challenges of AI in Finance," featuring industry leaders.
Sudheer Chava, Alton M. Costley Professor of Finance at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, director of the M.S. in Quantitative & Computational Finance (QCF) program, and director of the Financial Services Innovation Lab kicked off the academic program by highlighting how the latest developments in AI, including generative AI, are likely to impact the financial services industry. His talk is followed by other technical talks on "The Future of LLMs" by Diyi Yang of Stanford NLP and Georgia Tech Financial Services Innovation Lab and on "The Future of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)" by Douwe Kiele from Contextual AI and Stanford.
Conference speakers also discussed various topics in areas such as risk management in financial services, the implications of NLP-generated tasks on work, the evolution and future role of LLMs in finance and society, and the intersection of financial institutions and tech stacks.
Drawing from academic and industry expertise, the conference included representatives from leading financial organizations such as Invesco, JP Morgan, Vanguard, Wells Fargo, Citizens Bank, and regulatory agencies such as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
"This was the first major conference at Georgia Tech that exclusively focused on AI and finance, and it was a huge success. Many attendees were interested in learning more about these important financial industry issues. We believe AI, including generative AI, to be transformational for the financial services industry. We plan to organize annual conferences on how AI will impact finance in the future," said Chava.
The conference was supported by the Financial Services Innovation Lab, the Master of Science in Quantitative and Computational Finance, and the Scheller College of Business.
Sudheer Chava, Alton M. Costley Professor of Finance at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, director of the Financial Services Innovation Lab and director of the M.S. in Quantitative & Computational Finance (QCF) program and Donie Lochan, managing drector, chief technology officer, and global head of Technology, Invesco.
Chaouki Abdallah, the executive vice president for Research presents a Fintech Fellow award to Yang Yang, 3rd year Industrial Engineering and Mathematics major at Georgia Tech.
Diyi Yang, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University; affiliate, Stanford NLP, and Georgia Tech Financial Services Innovation Lab, discussing her publication, "Future of LLMs."
Agam Shah, PhD candidate, College of Computing at Georgia Tech; Georgia Tech Financial Services Innovation Lab, presenting at the hands-on workshop on “Implementing LLMs in Finance.”
Reception with industry, faculty and student attendees at Kessler Campanile, Georgia Tech.
