Arab News Japan

Makoto Takashima, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group’s Chairman of the Board and Kanetsugu Mike, MUFG’s Chairman discussed the challenges and the impact artificial intelligence has on banking at Riyadh’s Future Investment Initiative on Tuesday. 

Speaking at a panel titled ‘Board of Changemakers: Financial Markets’ on the main stage, Takashima shared that Japan has leveraged automated systems through 24/7 convenience stores and AI chatbots. 

However, he added that there has to be a human element to these systems in order to enhance them further. 

“Some banks try to (introduce) AI-automated services but some customers (who have complicated needs) don’t want to take them. In those circumstances, I think it is best to develop an AI supported by a human touch,” he said. “We could still take advantage of the existing human resources in that aspect.”

On the other hand, Mike shared that the biggest challenge that banks and fintech companies face is whether customers can adapt to the new AI technologies or not.

“The speed of these technological advances is unprecedented,” he told the panel. “Whether human beings can adapt to that speed of evolution—it is a hard challenge.”

“We know, as CEOs and chairmen, we have to take risks, we have to retrain and we have to foster those within our organization. We have to be responsible to engage with our client,” he added. 

The MUFG chairman argued that traditional banks are still relevant despite technological advances. 

“Banks remain an indispensable intermediary,” he said. “We have to be careful about what we are going to intermediate in order to preserve the overall safety of the worldwide bank system.”

The panel also hosted various CEOs and chairmen, such as Tareq A. AlSadhan, Saudi National Bank’s CEO and Jane Fraser, Citi Jenny Johnson’s CEO.