Artificial intelligence (AI), while technically complex, is based on one very simple foundation: data.
And this is where Databricks has counted and invested in 50% of Fortune 500 companies since its founding in 2013. As Junta Nakai, global head of financial services, told his PYMNTS, educating these customers, and prospects, is a top priority.
“Especially in financial services, we want to better utilize the most important asset we currently have, and that asset is data,” Nakai said. “And in order to do that, you have to move up this maturity curve. The maturity curve breaks down to something as simple as you need to modernize your technology stack. You need to democratize and then transform your company. That's what our technology can do. Simply put, all your data is in one place, and everything you do with it starts from there. It is done.”
Sounds simple. But Databricks takes its mission seriously. In fact, its homepage features a tutorial called “Migrate a Data Warehouse to a Data Lakehouse for Beginners.'' One of its taglines sums up its go-to-market approach: “Databricks brings AI to your data and helps you bring AI to the world.” This is achieved by providing businesses with the ability to create their own generative AI models that can be deployed and monitored at scale.
read more: Why every business needs a data lakehouse now
A good example of how it works can be seen in conjunction with Databricks' Block. The parent company of Square and Cash App uses machine learning to detect and prevent fraud and improve the user experience with personalized recommendations, which includes a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences. is needed.
This is also important in the company's efforts to increase financial inclusion. Block works with Databricks to unify and streamline data, AI, and analytics workloads. Block executives say the move positions the company for what it calls the “future automation-driven innovation shift” in financial services.
CEO level priorities
This change and the ability to use AI to improve the consumer financial services experience is critical to Databricks' value proposition. Nakai says this will allow for hyper-personalization of offers and messaging. He will also create capabilities that use AI to sift through unstructured data and text to understand customers on multiple levels to inform that personalization.
Incorrect information can have serious consequences. Nakai said he recently noticed, for example, that car dealers were trying to incorporate his AI into their marketing without doing this due diligence. He ended up creating ads that directed consumers to rival dealerships.
Mr. Nakai's background is in securities sales and trading, including 14 years at Goldman Sachs. He knows all too well the frustration of manual work, slow trading programs, and even slow Excel files. He recognized early on that the future of his business would be determined, at least in part, by algorithms, and now he believes that future is a reality.
“I think one of the reasons we've been so successful is because AI is a CEO-level priority in every company in the world,” Nakai said.
“AI is going to be very important going forward, so we think the cloud is the future. Everything you need to future-proof your architecture is there, but it’s also about future AI awards. We're also kind of looking at it. What we offer is an opportunity to modernize legacy systems so that they're ready for something like that in the future.”
Of course, legacy systems and financial services still belong in the same sentence. Nakai believes that most financial institutions have yet to implement advanced AI due to their legacy infrastructure and the inherently risk-averse nature of their businesses.
But that is changing. He said big banks are putting more innovation budgets into AI, and executives know that AI will be a key competitive factor if they want to compete with the fintechs that follow. Looking.
“The secret to winning banks' recruitment is leveraging capital, scale data and talent,” he said. “You have to do it very well.”
“That's how the future of banking will be created. Because the future of finance has three components: It will happen soon. It will be inclusive. And it will be invisible. I think it becomes a thing. It's like taking an Uber. It's part of the experience, so you don't even think about paying for it.”