The surge in artificial intelligence is increasing banks’ reliance on major U.S. tech firms, raising concerns within the industry, European banking executives warned this week.
At a fintech conference in Amsterdam, leaders noted that the significant computing power required for AI advancements is deepening banks’ dependence on companies like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Amazon.
Bahadir Yilmaz, ING’s chief analytics officer, feels the use of AI will push banks towards Big Tech companies to build the required digital infrastructure. “You will always need them because sometimes the machine power that is needed for these technologies is huge. It’s also not really feasible for a bank to build this tech,” he said.
British regulators have proposed rules to mitigate financial firms’ reliance on external tech providers, fearing that issues at a single cloud company could disrupt services across multiple banks. Banks are eager to tap into AI’s potential benefits, such as improved fraud detection and customer service.
