Global Trustee and Fiduciary Services News and Views Issue 50

respondents to a CRISIL survey said they expect their firms to increase investment in analytics software. 4 The same Thompson Reuters report notes that cognitive software platforms are on course to attract nearly USD2.5 billion of investment across 2017. By delegating these roles to AI, firms can reduce the time needed to undertake robust market research, allowing their human staff to focus on the roles that still require the human element. DLT and asset management DLT, known most commonly as blockchain, is another main area where asset management firms currently interact with fintech and the firms developing this technology. Distributed ledgers are databases where the data in question is consensually shared and synchronised over a network. Each participant in the database can access all the information shared on it and own a copy of it. Every change or modification to the information stored on the ledger is reflected and copied to all other parties involved in a matter of seconds. With the implementation of such technology, central databases and master ledgers will no longer be required. Counterparties can instead utilise blockchain technology and have access to the same data sets during transactions, updated for all parties as the transaction progresses. As such, a back-office task like reconciliation can be massively streamlined. The blockchain technology has been proposed for a number of other crucial uses in asset management — speeding up the client on-boarding process, reducing operational expenditures and easing the compliance burden of anti-money laundering and know-your-customer checks, with this ability to share data sets and removing the need to reconcile proprietary databases. Even some regulatory bodies are excited by the growing adoption of blockchain, hoping that it could support improvements in transactional transparency and simplify reporting processes that often get bogged down in inefficiency. 5 With institutional investors making nearly USD11.4 billion of private investment into fintech firms in the asset management industry, it seems inevitable that we’ll see more contracts based on blockchain technology. Robo-advisers and customer-facing roles While asset management firms have used AI in their research and other backroom roles, there are other ways that firms could use such technology, including in robo-adviser and customer-support roles. In customer support roles, AI can be used as a “first port of call” for customers, utilising chat programmes or voice recognition software to answer commonly asked questions on a 24- hour basis. For firms who may have customers all over the world, this ease of contact when customers have queries can be crucial. Equally, algorithms that can answer basic, everyday questions can make more time available for support staff to deal with more complex issues. These chat-bots also provide an immediate response to customers, which is an enormous improvement on having customers waiting on hold for a member of the customer service staff. Firms are also considering and applying the use of robo-advisers, programmes that can take data extracted from both market trends and client