In an age where artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries, American Express (Amex), a titan of financial services, is strategizing to use AI to streamline transactions, approve credit lines, and delve deeper into customer sentiment analysis. This marks a significant milestone in their digital transformation journey, reinforcing the potency of AI in modern finance.
Despite the internal experiments with various machine learning services, American Express shows no signs of developing its own large language model (LLM) akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google’s Bard, as reported by VentureBeat. Luke Gebb, Senior Vice President of American Express Digital Labs, states, “Our hypothesis at the moment is that we would be better suited using LLMs through partnerships. I don’t see us spinning up our own LLM from scratch.”
While it remains ambiguous which partners the company intends to collaborate with for this venture, it’s noteworthy to mention that American Express has recently worked with Microsoft in developing cloud-based AI technologies. Considering Microsoft’s significant investment in generative AI technology through backing OpenAI with $1 billion in 2019, the partnership hints at intriguing developments ahead.
Gebb outlined an impressive roster of AI-integrated services that the company envisions for its future. One of these is harnessing AI to expedite transaction approval and using LLMs to parse customer interaction data for sentiment analysis – a data-driven approach to decode insights and actions from customer feedback.
Additionally, AI will be utilized for “approving cards and lines of credit,” a practice that, while controversial, can potentially streamline financial assessments based on historical trends. However, the company treads cautiously in incorporating the latest generation of AI technologies into its services, reflecting their prudent approach to fintech. While competitors like Mastercard and Visa have integrated cryptocurrency payments, Amex has taken measured steps, introducing a crypto rewards card without enabling payments via cryptocurrency.