Financial services giant American Express (Amex) is planning to extend its AI capabilities through partnerships in order to validate transactions, approve lines of credit, analyze customer sentiment, and predict customer finances. A recent report from VentureBeat reveals that Amex has no intention of creating its own large language model (LLM) to compete with the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. Instead, Luke Gebb, senior vice president of American Express Digital Labs, stated that the company would be better suited using LLMs through partnerships, without disclosing which partners the company has in mind.
It’s worth noting that Amex has previously worked with Microsoft to develop cloud-based AI technologies. Microsoft holds a significant stake in the generative AI world, having backed industry leader OpenAI with $1 billion in 2019. While it remains unclear which current partners will provide services or if Amex will seek out new partnerships, Gebb mentioned various activities and services the company aims to integrate into its stack in the future.
These goals include using AI to expedite transaction approvals and employing LLMs to analyze customer interaction data to assess sentiment, a process that involves treating customer feedback as a database and using machine learning to obtain key insights and action points. Gebb also revealed that Amex would use AI for “approving cards and lines of credit,” a sometimes-controversial practice that relies on historical trends to determine whether an applicant is likely to experience significant financial loss (or growth) and make decisions about extending a line of credit.
The company seems to be taking a cautious approach to incorporating the latest generation of AI technologies into its products and services, which aligns with its general approach to fintech in recent years. While competitors such as MasterCard and Visa have embraced cryptocurrency payments, Amex has decided to take it slow by simply offering a crypto rewards card but stopping short of allowing payments via cryptocurrency.
This strategy showcases the ongoing debate surrounding the use of AI in the financial services sector, as well as the challenges in striking the right balance between innovation and potential drawbacks. Whether large corporations like Amex should build their own AI models or partner with established providers remains a question for the industry.
Ultimately, Amex’s foray into utilizing AI technologies via partnerships could serve as an example for other companies in the financial sector, illustrating the potential of AI to streamline processes and improve decision-making while maintaining compliance with current regulations.
Source: Cointelegraph
