by Nada Ali Redha, Founder of PLIM Finance

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed countless industries, and fintech is no exception. The evolution of AI technology is revolutionising how financial services operate, particularly in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) space. As the Founder and CEO of PLIM Finance—a BNPL service that specialises in the medical aesthetics industry—I have witnessed firsthand how AI can be leveraged to enhance both user experience and operational efficiency.

In the BNPL sector, AI and machine learning are essential tools for understanding and predicting consumer behaviour. BNPL providers often face the high-risk challenge of defaults, where consumers fail to make their scheduled payments. This is a critical issue for any BNPL provider, as defaults can impact the company’s profitability and reputation.

At PLIM Finance, we use AI-driven tools to manage defaults and failed payments. The power of AI in this context lies in its ability to learn from historical data and predict payment failures with remarkable accuracy. By analysing patterns in consumer spending, repayment behaviours, and other relevant factors, AI systems can forecast which payments are most likely to default. This predictive capability allows us to take proactive measures to manage and reduce defaults, safeguarding both our customers’ financial health and our own.

While we do not currently use AI to assess creditworthiness at PLIM Finance, AI’s potential in real-time risk assessment is unquestionable. Traditional credit assessment methods rely on static data, such as credit scores and income statements, which may not always reflect a consumer’s current financial situation. AI, however, can offer a more dynamic and holistic approach.

AI-driven systems can continuously analyse a variety of data sources, including transaction histories, spending patterns, and even social behaviours, to build a more comprehensive risk profile for each customer. This enables BNPL providers to make more informed lending decisions, tailoring financing options that align with each user’s ability to repay. Although PLIM has yet to implement AI in creditworthiness assessment, we recognise its potential to improve decision-making processes over traditional methods.

AI has a crucial role in combating fraud within the financial services sector, including BNPL platforms. Fraud detection is a multi-faceted challenge that requires constant vigilance and real-time analysis. AI is uniquely equipped to tackle this problem due to its capacity for processing vast amounts of data quickly and identifying suspicious patterns or anomalies that could indicate fraudulent activity.

At PLIM Finance, we leverage AI’s ability to apply collective data learning to make real-time decisions, thus reducing the likelihood of fraudulent activities going unnoticed. For instance, AI can detect unusual spending patterns or behaviours that deviate from a user’s normal financial activity, triggering alerts for further investigation. This proactive approach has proven to be highly effective in minimising financial losses and ensuring a safer environment for our users.

One of the most impactful benefits of AI in the BNPL space is the enhancement of customer engagement and satisfaction. AI allows companies to offer personalised, tailor-made services that resonate with each consumer’s specific needs. In the context of PLIM Finance, AI helps us recommend financing options based on individual preferences and past behaviours, streamlining the user’s journey.

Higher customer satisfaction often translates into increased loyalty and trust in the brand. By utilising AI to provide relevant recommendations and support, we can meet our customers where they are in their financial journey, helping them make informed decisions. This, in turn, creates a positive user experience that distinguishes our services from those of traditional lending institutions.

Despite its numerous benefits, implementing AI in BNPL services is not without challenges, especially concerning data privacy, algorithmic fairness, and transparency. One of the primary concerns in any AI application is bias in the data. AI systems learn from historical data, which may not be entirely representative of the diverse range of consumers who use BNPL services. Until we can source data from a wide variety of demographic and socioeconomic backgrounds, there is a risk that AI-driven decisions could inadvertently favour certain groups over others.

Transparency in AI decision-making is another ethical consideration. Customers need to trust that their data is being used responsibly and that AI algorithms are making fair, unbiased lending decisions. To address these concerns, it is crucial to maintain transparency about how AI models are built, what data they use, and how decisions are made. Additionally, complying with data privacy regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, is essential to protect consumer rights.

AI’s role in the BNPL industry will continue to evolve as technology advances and more data becomes available. At PLIM Finance, we are excited about the future possibilities that AI presents, from more accurate risk assessment to enhancing customer satisfaction. By continuously improving our AI-driven tools and addressing the ethical challenges associated with their use, we aim to create a more inclusive, secure, and user-friendly BNPL experience.

In conclusion, the impact of AI in the fintech industry, particularly in the BNPL space, is profound. It offers solutions to key challenges, including managing defaults, fraud detection, and customer engagement, all while providing an opportunity to enhance the overall user experience. However, as we embrace these technological advancements, it is equally important to navigate the ethical concerns thoughtfully, ensuring that AI serves as a tool for positive financial inclusion.

By Joman Kwong, Strategic Solutions Manager, Financial Services, at Laserfiche

If the mortgage process wasn’t already complex enough, the current state of the UK economy is adding even more fuel to the fire. First-time buyers are likely to spend over one-third of their pay on mortgage payments. And with advanced technologies becoming increasingly accessible and integrated into consumers’ lives, people have little patience for outdated technology and unnecessarily disjointed processes. In fact, 64% of consumers are now more likely to choose fintechs over traditional banks.

Yet, digital transformation in the mortgage industry remains a challenge. Leaders are likelier to stick with tried-and-trusted processes, particularly when sensitive information is at stake. The mortgage industry is also an archaic one, with loans first offered in the UK around the 12^th century.  But now, 21^st century technology is set to bring this historic industry into the present, making legacy processes and tenuous paperwork a thing of the past.

By utilising the vast array of digital tools on offer, mortgage providers can refresh their systems and processes to provide a better, more streamlined customer experience. Lenders can expedite mortgage processes when every decision is backed by precise data collection and analysis, and systems are in place to organise, access and manage customer information.

Utilising AI to free up time for human employees

Many financial institutions have already started to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their systems and processes to great effect. AI makes it easier than ever before to streamline capturing and classifying data to make content searchable from one centralised, organised place. Employees no longer need to trawl through documents manually but can rely on AI to source documents by using keywords, metadata, annotations, file names and more.

Employees take back valuable time when they are no longer bogged down with manual tasks; for example, filling out and filing documents can now be automated. The result is more time,      headspace, and energy to provide personalised customer service. Tools such as AI-powered chatbots are also becoming increasingly popular as an in-app banking feature, providing customers with 360 support anytime, anywhere. Chatbots can also facilitate more personalised, guided experiences when customers are reviewing forms or searching through websites, ensuring that they feel supported every step of the way.

The role of hyperautomation in breaking down siloes

Many mortgage lenders and financial institutions have already invested in automation but currently utilise single-point solutions that are earmarked for specific tasks. The result can be disjointed end processes, resulting in slower services for end users. Hyperautomation, therefore, can play a fundamental role in improving the total experience within financial institutions. End-to-end solutions make it easy to automate manual tasks and expedite data entry and approval routing. Leaders are no longer hampered by siloed data and unstructured data sets, which can lead to issues such as multiple versions of pieces of digital content with no ability to track them.

Hyperautomation reduces the likelihood of important documentation – such as sales contracts and datasheets – getting lost in the ‘digital noise’. It brings together business processes across different applications and departments to ensure better useability for employees and customers alike.

In the mortgage sector, hyperautomation tools can also make it possible to fill the gaps between mortgage origination and other business applications, expediting underwriting and mortgage review workflows. For example, by deploying a process orchestration engine, a mortgage lender could provide an accessible interface where customers or brokers could easily submit a mortgage application with all the supporting documents. After the first round of interviews, the provider could then route data into the core banking software and loan origination system for processing, eliminating any duplicate or manual data entries. Feeding data directly to the core banking software in this way also provides employees quick and easy access to customers’ personal information, all via one single interface. Hyperautomation will drive improved visibility across every process, speeding up operations and driving better CX as a result.

Streamlined customer experiences stem from connected processes

When customers are looking to obtain a mortgage, they are still faced with many time-consuming manual tasks such as document collection and income verification. Customers understandably become frustrated with disjointed verification processes, where they are asked to input the same security information multiple times. Fragmented processes occur due to a lack of data integration.      Organisations can avoid the risks associated with data being stored in multiple places when every system and process is connected. Connecting every system and process also encourages customer loyalty and satisfaction because applications work efficiently, intuitively and with the click of a button.

So, what does this look like in practice? Mortgage providers can create a ‘single source of truth’ by bringing together loan origination systems with core banking software, so that mortgage specialists can access real-time information without needing to jump between applications. From augmenting credit checks to speeding up underwriting procedures to streamlined review and approval processes, the opportunities for transformation are endless.

Looking towards the future of the mortgage sector

We’ve seen how AI-empowered tools can help customer service representatives quickly retrieve a document or copy of a signature directly from a cloud-based system. As operations within the sector digitally transform, the benefits will be felt by all stakeholders, from employees to customers to shareholders. Process automation tools are already helping innovative financial institutions enhance the customer experience as they integrate unparalleled levels of connectivity into their offerings.

A process as complex as securing a mortgage will never be hurdle-free, but introducing digital tools will help make the journey towards attaining a mortgage significantly smoother. And it’s not just customers that will benefit. A well-equipped workforce that has easy access to systems that organise and manage data can provide a more efficient service, boosting both productivity and customer satisfaction. The time to invest in tools that will help supercharge how you provide your financial offerings is now. The business benefits will be felt for years to come.

Philip Sheen, Head of Public Sector UKI at UiPath

By its nature, the digital transformation of the public sector has been gradual and guarded. Public sector organisations and governments have limited budgets, lean teams, and a responsibility to act in the interest of the citizens who use supplied services. This context means that the implementation of innovative technologies and ultimately transformation has been conservative by comparison to some other industries.

We are starting to see this approach shift. As more organisations implement and benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) powered solutions, public sector bodies are now considering how and where they can best use AI, with AI-enabled automation now very much part of their future.

As the UK public sector looks to AI and automation to improve the way it works and the services it provides to its citizens. With careful change management it is possible to tackle doubts and allow public sector organisations to realise the power of technology, with people at the centre.

Automation for civil servants

A core challenge for the UK civil service is how it can make efficiencies in customer engagement and cost saving while still enhancing outcomes for citizens. Doing so is a tricky balance, but AI-enabled automation provides a solution.

AI powered automation can help improve the efficiency of government services and free up civil servants’ time to focus on valuable, non-repetitive, tasks. However, many aren’t implementing it, citing reasons such as lean teams, complicated processes and disparate, legacy technology as blockers. It can seem that the adoption of automation feels a long way off.

By removing human and system latency, working across tech platforms and ecosystems to bypass constraints, and orchestrating and providing experiences which better blend together for the end user, the modernisation of the civil service is in reach through automation.

This is especially important in the sector given it often deals with and provides services for some of the most vulnerable in society. Vulnerable citizens need specialised support, whether that’s through faster loan approvals, special assistance with applications or providing accessible services. Not only can automation help make these services a reality, but also free up worker time so they have more time to think about and create more accessible options for those who need them.

Automation for healthcare

Patient waiting lists and waiting times in the UK have soared since COVID. The volume of people on the list for elective treatment has tripled since 2013. Patients are being failed and change needs to happen – AI-enabled automation can help.

The administrative burden in healthcare is high. By driving uniformity across core processes, making the back and middle office more effective – replacing manual processes and tasks and improving workflows – and reducing the resources allocated to these activities, automation can make administrative and support tasks quicker, error free and less costly. The overall impact of this is improved wait times and even better speed and precision in diagnoses.

Automation is a proven pathway to better patience care and experience within the healthcare sector.

Automation in policing

Smaller budgets and targets to keep the police workforce lean has left the industry looking to improve officer and system efficiency. Automation has the ability to help change this, empowering officers with the enhanced skills needed to deliver the best services for the citizens who need them, while focusing on a core part of their job – keeping citizens safe.

This technology can be used in numerous ways, including uploading witness statements to Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) on the go so officers can move from one incident to the next more easily; ensuring paperwork is filled out correctly the first time to avoid mistakes in cases and documents being rejected; and even the automatic redaction of sensitive data in relations to Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Automation can also support officers when it comes to threat harm risk assessments. By working across constabularies and local authorities, automation can highlight vulnerable individuals, allowing officers to spot and evaluate patterns and react to their situation appropriately.

Looking to an impactful future

Use of AI and automation in public services all comes back to the impact it has on people, whether that is across safety, health or social care. When embedded into organisations and leveraged in the correct way the benefits can be experienced for both citizens and civil servants, but the urgency for change is now.