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Driving strategy with AI as a tool

BY CHARLES POTTS

AI addressed problems, where
Artificial Intelligence has become the buzzword
they are seeing successes and
for financial services, but it’s moved beyond just hype. Today,
where these solutions fit into
community bankers and their partners are experimenting with
their strategies.
AI-like tools in the predictive and generative space to support
business objectives, including chatbots to offer 24/7 customer The resulting AI Solutions
support, monitoring transaction data to spot suspicious activity, Forum provides a firm base on
underwriting loans and more. which community bankers can
learn and grow. It’s a chance
Therein lies the key to AI success: aligning it with overall bank
for both C-suite and up-and-
strategy. As exciting of an offering as it is, AI is a utility. For
coming leaders to expose Charles Potts is Executive Vice
community bankers to use it effectively, we need to assess how
themselves to something new President and Chief
it helps us solve a problem for our banks.
in a safe, trusted environment. Innovation Officer at ICBA.
Identifying community bank AI solutions ACB is the ICBA state affiliate.
It’s our goal not to just dive into
At ICBA Innovation, we’ve been watching AI’s evolution closely Charles can be reached at
the shiny new thing but to
and are struck by three important observations: charles.potts@icba.org
create a place for substantive,
• There’s still a great deal of confusion in the industry—from peer-to-peer dialogue and strategic exploration. AI may be the
solution providers to bankers to regulatory agencies—as to technology du jour, but it has real potential to solve community
what AI actually is. As an industry, we have allowed bank problems.
external forces, including people with financial interest in
So, we want to ensure you have the information you need to
these technologies, to form the narrative. This, in turn,
make informed decisions and drive your strategy forward—one
creates uncertainty.
new tool at a time.
• However, there’s true technological evolution in this space.
Established fintech companies are offering improved
solutions using AI-based tools, and new companies are
entering the pipeline.
• We’re witnessing AI-based tools that can help our banks,
and we’re finding ways to shine a light on those solutions.

Supporting AI strategy
These developments led us to host our AI Solutions Forum. We
identified AI solution providers that were already doing work
with community bankers and asked those bankers to share how

A COMMUNITY BANKER | 13 | Fall 2024
RKANSAS