AI systems are revolutionizing business operations across all sorts of industries, and the financial sector is no exception. However, applying AI to alternative investment firms requires navigating through a fair amount of complexity and risk before the benefits of large language models, machine learning algorithms, generative content and other elements of AI can truly be realized. Let’s examine some of the most powerful use cases for AI, and how the right MSP can help financial firms implement them in a way that maintains – and even strengthens – security and compliance.
Powerful AI Use Cases for Financial Firms
There’s no shortage of use cases for AI systems that streamline operations, automate business workflows, index content and perform analytics for decision support and more. The potential benefits go far beyond what traditional manual processes could make possible and are particularly rich for financial sector organizations.
For instance, private equity firms can use AI to scour hundreds of confidential investment memoranda (CIM), board decks and other documents to efficiently research trends around profitability, debt structures, EBITA margins and other data. As another example, hedge funds can deploy AI to drive research management platforms to sift through reams of historical data for instant analysis and decision support for trades happening in real time.
Other use cases include AI systems that automatically normalize federal government data, and AI platforms that scour social and professional networks online for enhanced due diligence in hiring and cultivating prospects. However, these capabilities don’t come without risks; a poorly-strategized AI implementation can introduce new security gaps and additional vulnerabilities to the IT estate.
Maximizing AI Value and Minimizing AI Risk with the help of the Right MSP
For all their promise, AI tools are not turnkey or one-size-fits-all. Each use case requires precise configuration of AI platforms to run correctly in the specific enterprise IT environment it’s being deployed in. And because AI systems may expand connectivity and integrations across both internal and external networks as they access diverse data sets and systems, potential vulnerabilities and attack surfaces are also expanded – especially if access control is poorly configured.
For these reasons, firms face significant security, operational and compliance risks unless they find the right expertise to help responsibly deploy AI in their IT systems. Fortunately, the right MSP can help configure, optimize and secure AI tools and platforms as they operate in a financial firm’s IT ecosystem – allowing firms to reap the benefits of powerful AI use cases while minimizing the potential pitfalls.
For example, a qualified MSP partner can ensure secure access to the expanded and more diverse datasets AI systems are accessing and set up closed loop environments for AI tools operating with particularly sensitive data or processes. The MSP can also monitor access patterns to ensure employees aren’t misusing AI systems for unauthorized queries or activity.
The right MSP can also help firms fully leverage the AI capabilities built into product suites they may already have. For example, most ECI clients take advantage of our Microsoft Gold Partner status to get the most out of their Microsoft products. That will continue to be the case as clients adopt the company’s new Microsoft 365 Copilot generative AI tool. ECI provides the configuration and management expertise required to fully leverage Copilot’s application of natural language with linguistic models, data, and Microsoft Graph to improve employee productivity using everyday applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams or PowerPoint.
On these and many other fronts, the right MSP can optimize and secure how AI is used across a financial sector organization for stronger operations, security and compliance.
