AI & Robotics in Corporate Treasury

Commentary

This call was organised in the midst of media hype about AI (Artificial Intelligence), with several banks having banned the use of ChatGPT, and highly convincing fake videos being created and going viral. The first question was whether our members share the banks’ concern over the danger of tools such as ChatGPT running out of control and executing highly credible frauds. The answer was “No” - in the sense that it was not on anyone’s radar screen.

The second question was about the adoption of robots to automate treasury processes: these typically execute pre-defined processes, with no decision-making function. There are high levels of interest in this, and increasing levels of adoption. 

AI is of interest for areas such as forecasting, where an increasing number of applications are available which look at historical data and use it to predict future patterns. However, only one participant is currently using it for cash forecasting. But:

• Banks are increasingly using AI to screen transactions, and highlight unusual ones. This is good – but one participant saw valid, but unusual, transactions fail to execute on time as a result.  
• AI’s ability to handle large data lakes or oceans inside companies is a positive - but it is hard to be sure all the relevant data has been included. 
• One participant is concerned that the questions being asked on ChatGPT could potentially be tracked, leading to confidentiality breaches.
• The same participant is also concerned that the inability to track and verify the source of data in this tool could lead to unintentional copyright infringements. Usage rules are being put in place to manage these risks.

On the other hand, most participants are actively using robots for various tasks:

• Allocation of