In this interview with the national president of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions(ASSBIFI ), Olusoji Oluwole spoke on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence in financial service sector and reporting and the need to curb its excesses.
Excerpt
Looking at the intersection between finance, technology and innovation, how do you think this is going to impact the performance of financial journalists?
The whole idea is to bring everything together, because there will be an intersection at some point in time. We are coming from a period where things were done manually, to when they became automated, and now, to an era where Artificial Intelligence does everything. So what AI has come to do, is to do in minutes what several people would have done probably in weeks or days.. However, the challenge that we see is that, artificial intelligence is prone to manipulation. Hence, whatever results an artificial intelligence system brings out, with this kind of training, you will be able to dissect it, and pick out any issues that you may find, and bring them to question. Since AI is developed by human beings too, so, whatever its result on a task, it’s still human beings that will be able to decode and dissect it. So, the whole purpose of this training is to put journalists in a position to receive reports, and be able to analyze, and ask questions where questions need to be asked. So, by the time these things are being put into public space, you would have been the first point of contact to raise any questions.
Just as AI currently influences journalistic work, so also in the banking sector where it could be deployed for both negative and positive tasks.So, as an association , how do you ensure that some of these banking staffs are well trained, just like you are training us here, to understand how to effectively deploy AI in customer service delivery?
Well, artificial intelligence will always be used positively and negatively, but one thing I can tell you is that, banks generally have a huge focus on risk and IT security, so, when we’re talking about security, we’re talking about IT security, and other securities all around their systems. It is interesting to let you know that, banks upskill and update their staff regularly. So whatever it is that is being developed, the first thing that is at the back of the mind of anybody is the security of it, and that is why if we look at it on the surface, for example, you will hear of two-factor authentication. The two-factor authentication is to further enhance securitisation of your account. In this regards, unless, you provided fraudsters some of your secret information, they will not be able to hack into your account and system.
So, most time they hack customer’s account, we find out that there is usually a compromise on the part of the victim, but then, we will not blame the victim because there are times when things look normal, but are not actually what they seem to be. For example, some people who receive emails, or receive text messages purportedly from their financial institutions to click on something, and the moment they do that, their money is gone. Another scenario is, those who are asked to give their personal details, which they are not supposed to do; so, all those things combine to lead to loss of funds many times, Because of that, banks have also gone on to do campaigns to their customers, telling them what is the things that they are not supposed to give to third parties, the things that are personal to them. There are occasions where systems may have been hacked, and where those happen, I know a lot of financial institutions will move swiftly, because there are regulations that guide all these things, so they move swiftly. There are people who check these things daily, they have teams that work 24 hours a day, they are sitting down looking at it. They are intelligent enough to tell you there is something amiss, so, all those things are in place in financial institutions.
Financial fraud through artificial intelligence is not a Nigerian problem, it’s a global problem, and I recall a couple of weeks ago, I was in an engagement where we looked at a system that tracks cyber attacks from various places. Cyber attacks were more coming in from other countries into Nigeria than from Nigeria out. So, you find them from Europe, Asia, America, Latin America, South America, all coming in from different locations and there are millions. So, it is a global problem that needs to be addressed.
As an institution that deals with workers’ welfare in the banking and financial industries sector, how have you been able to address casualisation of workers in the banking sector?
For us, like we presented about two years ago, the then Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, released a document on casualisation, a guideline on how casualisation should be dealt with, the period of time that people can be in casual employment before they move on, and we are aware that this was something that was given like a directive to financial institutions, and to the people who are providing those services.
This is because casual workers are not actually staff of the banks, they are staff of outsourcing companies, so, we know that quite a number of organisations have complied, there are those who have still not done the same, so it’s become a case of not just us, but the government being able to monitor, regulate and ensure that the needful is done, because it’s almost like a law that has been passed and needs to be implemented. But generally amongst our own institutions, it’s minimal, it’s quite minimal.
Is there any advice for banks, especially, in terms of taking most of the responsibilities in hat they do in this era of AI?
Like we have always said, people should ensure that they increase their knowledge and skill in technology, it’s a dynamic environment, nothing remains the same, everything keeps changing. AI is still going to be managed by humans, and the opportunities are very wide for people to exploit. So, our advice always is that, they should continue to improve on their skills, to continue to upskill and develop themselves very well. And while we are advising employees, we also advise employers, not to be too quick to discard people who, for some reason, have been unable to upskill, because one thing that you cannot just go out into the world to pick up is experience. This is because, there are times when artificial intelligence can malfunction, because it’s technology.
If it decides to have a mind of its own, who is going to resolve it? It is the people with experience, because today, we are breeding a lot of people who are very versatile and conversant in technology, so, they can think it and they can write it, but they do not have that experience to be able to deal with it. Just like driving, today, everybody is driving an auto vehicle, put that same person who is fantastic in an auto vehicle, in a manual car, he’s going to have a problem, because he doesn’t understand the technology of clutch, changing up, changing down and all those things. It’s the same thing with technology, that, no matter how artificial intelligence malfunction , we must have that reserve in place in case,to deal with it.
In this area of ongoing recapitalisation in the banking sector, are you putting measures in place to ensure that workers are not majorly affected?
Yes, I’ve said this in different forums and interviews, that where we talk about it affecting our members, it’s situations where we have acquisitions and mergers happening. But again, when you look at the amount of money that is being required to raise, I do not expect any institution to remain the same size. So, it means that we expect business to grow, which means that we expect that there will be demand for staff in some of those areas. Nevertheless, we have signified our interest in institutions that are likely to merge or are likely to be acquired. We’ve signified our interest to them, to all parties involved and to the regulators as well, especially situations where one party is unionized and the other is not unionized. We let them know all that is happening.
Of course we cannot discount the fact that there may be adjustments of some sort. So, what is important at the end of the day, is to find how some of these amendments can be appropriately placed, because there have been duplication of roles, whether we like it or not. If two organizations are coming together, let’s start from the top, we are going to have two chairmen, two folks, two MTs, two escorts, all down to the very last position. So we understand that those things will happen. And where it happens, we are also campaigning to ensure that people are adequately compensated for the work that they have done, based on the kind of capitalization that has been raised and based on the laws that govern such situations.
As the anchor of this capacity building for business sectors, what do you suggest as a take-home for business sectors?
For me, my own desire, and a take-home for all of you, is that, at the end of this training, you will be able to give unbiased and objective reports without having to run to experts in the field, so to speak, because it’s not all the time that you are going to find professionals sitting in your position.
There are times where they may just be people who studied journalism, not professionals who came into journalism, but you will be able to speak with authority. And where that comes to play is that, for professionals, there are times where they will have their own biases as well, because it’s difficult to have 100% objectivity. So, for people in your own field, in your own profession, you have the opportunity to be able to come out and say it the way it is, and be able to ask the right questions. So for us, the take-home that I want you to go with is that when you are reporting, you will be able to give to the public things that they will understand, they will be able to digest, and they will be able to use. Thank you very much.