Towards data intelligence: Future-proofing data strategy

The winners in financial services over the next ten years will be those who focus on getting their data in order. The recent rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have forced a rethink. The curation of data has still not had the attention it deserves within the financial sector, despite the pressure from regulators and the increasing demand for accurate, accessible data from clients and for internal decision making. Many organisations struggle to integrate data across functional siloes and understand what they have, its quality and how it can be accessed and used. How can data intelligence be improved to provide the backbone for data integration and the adoption of AI? This paper examines the current issues and the risks that uncontrolled and inappropriate data can pose within this new context. It then describes the architectural, cultural and control approaches that can be used to provide the required level of intelligence on a company’s data assets and the mechanisms to deliver the right data to the right place at the right time. A strategy for improvement is proposed. Those who prioritise data intelligence in curating data will take advantage of the opportunities that the new technologies surrounding AI will provide. Those that do not will struggle with the flexibility and scale required to compete in an increasingly volatile global and technological environment.