Artificial intelligence (AI) has been deepening its footprint in the financial sector in recent years. It has been at the forefront of streamlining operations, enhancing decision-making and driving innovation. Recent advancements in Generative AI (GenAI) present new opportunities for developing and improving financial applications.

To assess the sentiment on the impact of GenAI on cybersecurity within the financial sector, The Hague University, in collaboration with HCLTech, conducted a research study. They interviewed experts from leading financial organizations in the Benelux about their usage, concerns and approaches to the adoption of GenAI and its associated risks.

Key insights from the experts:

• Emerging Adoption: GenAI adoption is new and focused on exploratory projects
• Top Applications: Uses include RAG for searching information, GitHub Copilot for development and custom chatbots
• Inhouse Focus: Applications are for internal operations with 'human in the loop' for security
• Governance and Concerns: Experts stress the need for robust governance to manage GenAI risks

Top three mentioned GenAI applications

• RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) for searching unstructured information
• GitHub Copilot for supporting software development of inhouse applications
• Chatbots with custom Large Language Models