During a panel on AI and Digital Transformation in Asset Management, Thind described Generative AI (GenAI) as “gut instinct backed by data,” noting that the technology’s ability to analyze unstructured data quickly and generate insights is a major source of its power for the investment industry. That, paired with the ability to orchestrate AI Agents to perform real world tasks will usher in a new era for all our operations.

He also talked about the potential of GenAI to transform how we think about technology. “IT in financial services for decades has just acted as translators between clients who know what they want and machines that can deliver that information. Now that machines can understand our clients directly, due to the advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) thanks to GenAi, IT’s role transforms to ensuring accuracy of the underlying data and providing guardrails for the models to operate in.”

“Technology is no longer the barrier. Having a long term vision and the ability to clearly articulate them to these AI models is going to be the most sought after skillset,” said Thind. “This opens brand new avenues for students in humanities to enter the financial services domain and be better than some of the best programmers due to their ability to express [that vision].”

Thind added that there are risks. “You need to understand the lack of explainability and predictability of these models and ensure they are used for the correct use case with appropriate oversight.”

“Our brain is also unexplainable but we operate within the boundaries of laws and ethics to be responsible human beings. We need an encoding of the same principles to create responsible AI which will enable us to use it much more widely,” he added.

“The anticipated impact of GenAI on GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and productivity is significant. The countries that create an environment of growth for these technologies and the companies that can create the right platforms will be the winners of the next decade.”