Financial services organizations looking to modernize their operations through cloud and AI solutions face unique challenges. Let’s explore some strategies for successful digital transformation using solutions available in AWS Marketplace, with insights from industry leaders on implementation best practices.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and solutions in AWS Marketplace provide services and tools that accelerate AI adoption, streamline cloud integration, and optimize application workflows. Selecting the right cloud and AI solutions remains crucial for financial services organizations to support a secure, compliant ecosystem and quickly drive innovation.
However, often a bigger challenge is navigating cross-functional obstacles to agree on:
- What use cases can benefit most
- How to integrate and experiment
- When to realistically expect results
Panel discussion: Insights from industry leaders
Recently AWS moderated a panel discussion on Modernizing financial services: Cloud ecosystems and AI opportunities. The conversation centered on research from the latest survey by Forrester of 559 global technology and business strategy decision makers across financial services, which tested two hypotheses:
- Financial services in the cloud enable firms to explore new ideas faster
- Agentic AI fuels autonomous finance capabilities built on cloud infrastructure
The panel included industry experts with deep financial services experience:
- Rachael Hadaway, VP Product Management – AI/Gen AI, FICO
- Luke Nordlie, Head of Business Development, S&P Global
- Himanshu Gupta, Sr. Solutions Architect, Solace
- Peter Wannemacher, Principal Analyst, Forrester
The following are highlighted key findings from the Forrester research, as well as insights from the panelists about the future of financial services.
Key findings from the Forrester study
The Forrester survey highlights that pressure is mounting to define cases for agentic AI and to effectively leverage third-party support for those efforts.
Finding #1: Firms aim to enhance security while simultaneously experimenting fast. According to the study, 61% of respondents indicated improving security and reducing enterprise risk as a top strategic goal. Yet, 88% agreed their organization needs to innovate faster to successfully compete.
Finding #2: Despite urgency to act, firms don’t have the technology or processes they need. The study found that 63% of respondents said concerns around security and risk are a top challenge for their technology infrastructure. Meanwhile, 57% did not believe their organization had the internal capabilities necessary to capitalize on the potential of agentic AI.
Finding #3: Cloud investments (and ecosystem thinking) will play a pivotal role in enabling stronger security and innovation. According to the study, 49% of respondents said they plan to invest 25% or more in cloud-based solutions this coming year compared with last year. Respondents identified potential benefits in organizational security, operational efficiency, and ability to develop new solutions for customers.
Finding #4: Agentic AI is a future imperative with high potential for disruption and competitive advantage. The study found that 84% of respondents agreed that their organization’s success depends on third-party platforms and marketplaces integrating with its products. “Much of which will come down to how they integrate with agentic AI capabilities,” added Wannemacher.
Balancing innovation and risk management
Many financial services firms can’t innovate solely with in-house solutions and resources, but outsourcing requires trust. Nordlie explained, “If I’m a chief information security officer, I not only have to worry about my internal security, I have to make sure that 500 to 1,000 of my suppliers are also applying the same rigor of security that I am internally.” Third-party marketplaces make it quicker to assess cloud and AI services and tools while enlisting innovative companies to address your needs.
Finding security-minded suppliers and starting with AI when you can harness real-time data minimizes security and compliance risks. Especially for companies evaluating agentic AI, the right time to start is when you can harness real-time data.
“It really comes down to leveraging appropriate technology architecture,” said Gupta. “In risk management, you’re not going to look at your positions from three months ago and calculate your risk today.” For firms considering agentic AI to address areas of risk, “we [the financial services industry] have to make sure they have access to real-time data to be useful,” adds Gupta.
Streamlining tasks help realize potential
The panel explored why AI pilots often do not live up to business expectations and sometimes fail altogether. The urge to blame AI technology for failed pilots may signal that an organization underestimated the importance of changing its governance process. “The FIs [financial services organizations] that we work with don’t struggle to identify or define use cases,” added Wannemacher. “They struggle to categorize and prioritize use cases.”
By assigning attributes to specific use cases and then prioritizing their importance based on business impact, measuring the value of AI becomes more tangible. “What we’ve seen work [better] is starting smaller, but a lot sharper,” noted Hadaway. “Use cases clearly anchored in business problems.” Hadaway stressed that tedious and reoccurring tasks, like data reconciliations and compliance workflows, are ideal for proving the value of AI and empowering people.
What successful AI use cases rely on
Leading financial services organizations understand how to integrate and scale use cases. “The reality is, if it can’t scale, no one will see it. And if you can’t integrate it, it doesn’t matter,” stated Hadaway. “So, we have to think about both scale and integration at the very beginning.”
Cross-functional alignment at the outset of a pilot—from technology and product teams to legal, compliance, operations, and others—helps support AI integration and scalability. It also encourages cross-functional goal setting to identify how AI can generate broader business value. In turn, this helps drive modular designs that make it faster to scale use cases going forward.
Agentic AI raises the stakes. “True autonomy demands a higher bar, not just for performance but also for governance,” noted Hadaway. “And in order to close that gap, organizations are going to have to move from experiments to systems, systems that are observable, auditable, policy bound.”
Benefit from upskilling and open-mindedness
Financial services organizations can support their business models and modernization through hiring, retraining, enlisting third-party support, or a combination of these approaches. Wannemacher pointed out that organizations with AI skills gaps should think twice before hiring more people with direct AI experience. Instead, advised Wannemacher, invest in finance professionals who are, “strong in the aptitudes and competencies [of AI] that will be useful for your role.”
Financial services leaders are actively working to refine their processes and resources for AI in financial services cases. “A lot of the breakdowns or roadblocks that happen are in legal and compliance and security,” added Hadaway. “That sometimes requires different talent, but more I think, it requires different guidance, different leadership, and different direction.”
Conclusion
The inherent tension between corporate pressures to accelerate automation with AI, while also managing risk at the same pace, is challenging for many financial services organizations. According to the Forrester research and our expert panel, financial services organizations can successfully navigate these pressures with effective services and tools, along with a clear mindset.
Contact an AWS Financial Services Representative to know how we can help accelerate your business. Or speak with an AWS Marketplace Representative to learn more.
Additional resources
Explore Financial Services solutions and software in AWS Marketplace to discover solutions like those discussed by our panelists: FICO, S&P Global Commodity Insights, and Solace.
Watch Modernizing financial services: Cloud ecosystems and AI opportunities on demand for additional insights.
Read Accelerating financial services innovation with AWS Marketplace to further understand practical strategies to advance your organization while maintaining regulatory compliance.
About AWS Marketplace
AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog with third-party financial services solutions across multiple categories and regions. This enables financial services organizations to innovate faster with access to pre-vetted software listings from AWS Partners while maintaining the controls and governance needed to operate with confidence.
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