‘I’ll Be Disappointed If You Don’t Use AI’: On AI in Regulated Industries.
“Please use AI. In fact, I’ll be disappointed if you don’t.”
Music to my ears!
I have landed back in bonnie Scotland, after a very traumatic three-hour delay for those following along. As if being back in Scotland was not reason enough to be cheerful (being back in Scotland, to be clear, not the flight delay), I have also just signed a new client.
A new client from across the Atlantic
I am working with a small consultancy, doing go-to-market work for a US asset manager.
The work is super fascinating. It turns out we might use different terminology, but the landscape is not that different at all.
Saying it out loud, from day one
From the outset I heard: “I’ll be disappointed if you don’t use AI.” Yey!
I love it. It is a clear expectation, stated up front, and a way of working where the whole team uses AI as a resource to maximise and optimise our skills. Nobody has to wonder whether they are allowed to, or feel awkward about how they got to a first draft. That clarity is rarer than it should be, and it makes a team faster before anyone has typed a single prompt.
Why I have become slightly obsessed
I have become slightly obsessed with AI over the past few months (you may have noticed). I have realised first hand that you can build a tool, push it live and test it with actual humans roughly a million times faster than I ever thought possible. I even rebuilt this website in an afternoon.
Coming from building propositions in financial services, that speed still feels faintly illegal.
Caution, and the size of the opportunity
I appreciate the need for caution and risk management when it comes to AI in regulated sectors. That matters, and I would never argue otherwise.
But even if we move at a slightly slower pace when it comes to truly integrating AI into customer-facing solutions, I believe the opportunity to build better, more inclusive regulated industries, across finance and health, is huge and very real.
For me, the inclusive part matters most. Regulated industries have a habit of building for the customers who are easiest to serve. If AI lets small teams test ideas with real people faster and more cheaply, more of those ideas can be built around the customers who usually get left out.
And it does not have to start with the customer-facing stuff. It can start with letting teams advance their own capabilities, or with clearing the admin at pace so people can spend their time more creatively.
From my conversations, there is a lot of variety in where organisations are right now. Some are testing bits and pieces in house, often starting with HR. Others are at the forefront, really trying to embed AI across customer solution design.
What is happening where you are?
If you are working out where AI fits in your customer or proposition work in a regulated business, book an intro call. I would love to compare notes.