News & Stories
Sovrin for your own security
September 29, 2020
Sovrin is a blockchain network that works by acting as the “middle man” between facts—they accept facts about people or places, as well as the verification from another authorized party that those facts are true and trustworthy. For example, in the future, when we all have digital identity records, you could add your new driver’s license to your records through Sovrin, and the Government of Alberta could verify that it is, in fact, a real and valid license. From there, you could use your identity record anywhere you need to present ID with the simple scan of a QR code.
Blockchain your identity
September 22, 2020
Think of all the places your identity is currently stored. Rather than 10-20 different organizations having their own version of your identity, you could go through life with one consistent record, that you completely control, granting other parties access to it when necessary—to open a bank account, get a car loan or be approved for your first mortgage. This is the future ATB is exploring, with the help of blockchain technology. And our starting point is, of course, making banking work for you.
Optimizing robotic process automation
September 15, 2020
Advancements in robotic process automation are enabling companies to quickly introduce improvements to outdated, complex, or error-ridden processes. But it’s not as simple as setting a bot loose and seeing massive returns in time and money saved.
Building a system of trust in the application of AI
September 8, 2020
As ATB Financial (ATB) increases its investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) via operations and products, it is committed to translating ATB values and principles into the decision-making processes and optimizations of AI. AI presents considerable opportunities to better serve customers, but it also encompasses particularly intricate challenges to value-based decision-making because it introduces complexity, uncertainty, and scale. These features mean that harm is more challenging to evaluate and pre-empt, and that even the smallest decision may have a large long-term effect that is difficult to detect and fix. We are investing in the opportunity AI presents to enhance customer experiences. The intent with this work is to build our capacities to: identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor the ethical dimensions in AI uptake - ensuring ATB leads by example in the ethical deployment of emerging technology.
Practical data synthesis
September 1, 2020
In order to build and maintain customer trust, financial institutions are investing millions of dollars in preserving privacy while experimenting with exponential technology to bring best value to their customers. With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence on all fronts, however, there is a dire need in the financial sector to balance customer privacy with the use of transaction data in training robust machine models. This white paper provides a rationale focused on data privacy and also includes suggested algorithmic recipes related to how transaction data could completely eradicate the use of real customer data. A distinction is drawn between data simulation and synthesis. Two discussed synthesis techniques include a bootstrapping framework featuring dynamic time warping and a hidden Markov model fitted with a stochastic gradient version of the Markov chain Monte Carlo method.
Scenarios of 2030+
August 25, 2020
Strategic foresight and scenario planning is the discipline of uncovering and analyzing the nuances of potential future outcomes in order to better equip businesses to recognize and adapt to unprecedented change. The scenarios outline the impacts of key uncertainties and they help scenario participants confront their personal blindspots in how they believe the path ahead will be laid out.
Author profiles
Miranda Mantey, Strategy & Foresight Analyst
Miranda Mantey is an experienced researcher, foresight practitioner, and strategist with a passion for learning and all things pertaining to the future. This thirst for knowledge is what led her to her position as Strategy and Foresight Analyst at ATB Financial, where she spends her time monitoring international trends to advise projects and innovation strategy.
Read all articles by authorSiobhan Owen, Brand & Content Strategist
Siobhan started out in content marketing over eight years ago and has since grown her career through a variety of roles at ATB Financial, most recently as the brand and content strategist for ATB Ventures. Passionate about story telling, brand growth, and female empowerment & leadership, Siobhan is on a journey to chase learning and growth opportunities from new fields and disciplines - and always with her pug on her lap.
Read all articles by authorSue McGill, Head of Innovation
Sue has spent her career operating from both Silicon Valley and Toronto, playing key roles in launching companies in international markets as well as building product, engineering, and corporate development capabilities at both publicly traded and privately held organizations. For the past two+ years she has been architecting the vision and strategy for ATB's Innovation Lab and driving execution across a product portfolio of emerging lines of businesses.
Read all articles by author