FICO Survey: 9 in 10 APAC Banks Feel They Lag Behind US and Europe in Use of AI

SINGAPORE — January 24, 2019

Highlights:

• 91 percent of risk officers in Asia-Pacific see themselves behind banks in the US and Europe in terms of implementing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, according to FICO’s latest survey
• About 2 in 5 banks see the lack of talent with AI expertise as their greatest challenge
• 68 percent of respondents see credit decisions as the business area which will benefit most from AI and machine learning

For more information: https://www.fico.com/en/products/fico-decision-management-suite

In a recent survey, Silicon Valley analytic software firm FICO found that 91 percent of banks in Asia Pacific (APAC) felt they lagged behind banks in the US and Europe when it came to implementation of AI in their operations. The remaining 9 percent indicated that they were at least on par with US and Europe counterparts, while not a single respondent felt they were ahead.

When asked about the biggest challenge in adopting AI and machine learning into existing bank operations, 42 percent indicated that it was the lack of available talent. The use of legacy systems (28 percent) came in second, followed by cost (16 percent).

“The shortage of talent continues to be an issue worldwide as the use of AI continues to grow quickly,” said Dan McConaghy, president of FICO in Asia Pacific. “However, we continue to partner with organizations to help them through some of these growing pains and help them operationalize AI and machine learning models.”

The FICO® Decision Management Suite (DMS) platform supports a wide range of commonly used AI and ML model executions, allowing businesses to overcome legacy system issues and deliver more predictive business outcomes.

The survey also found that more than half of APAC respondents see AI and machine learning as a means to help improve operational efficiency. Respondents ranked the areas that would receive the greatest benefit from the technology as credit decisions (68 percent), followed by fraud detection (45 percent) and then collections (35 percent).

Numerous Asia Pacific banks currently use the FICO® Falcon® Fraud Platform which has been powered by AI for more than twenty years and for which FICO holds over 100 patents in fraud-specific machine learning and AI.

“Falcon is a great example of how we help customers to operationalize artificial intelligence (AI), and make sense of their rapidly-growing transaction data,” said McConaghy. “The platform helps financial institutions detect and prevent fraud seamlessly, in real time. AI and machine learning models are engrained in FICO solutions that encompass many areas of banking operations, including credit scoring and debt collections.”

FICO currently holds 192 US and foreign patents, and 95 pending patent applications, with many of these related to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

FICO’s survey was conducted amongst 33 chief risk officers across Asia Pacific at its CRO Forum.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 190 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at www.fico.com.

Join the conversation on Twitter at @FICOnews_APAC.

FICO and Falcon are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries.

Contacts:
Neil Mirano
RICE for FICO
+65 3157 5680
neil.mirano@ricecomms.com

Saxon Shirley
FICO
+65 9171 0965
saxonshirley@fico.com