AI-Finance Odyssey: Challenges, Opportunities, and Cases from Global Practitioners

Abstract

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the financial and banking sectors presents both transformative opportunities and complex challenges. This study examines practitioner perspectives on AI adoption, analysing 60 YouTube videos featuring industry experts through a grounded-theory approach. Findings reveal key challenges, including regulatory compliance complexities, data quality limitations, ethical risks, and talent shortages, which hinder AI implementation. Conversely, AI offers significant benefits, such as hyper-personalised banking, enhanced fraud detection, automated credit underwriting, and operational cost savings. The study highlights the critical role of human oversight in ensuring transparency and mitigating biases in AI-driven decisions. By bridging practitioner insights with technological advancements, this research provides a framework for responsible AI adoption, emphasising the need for balanced human-AI collaboration to optimise efficiency, inclusivity, and ethical governance in the evolving financial landscape.