What is a better role for ATB than to be the provider of banking solutions to Alberta businesses implementing innovative solutions? In our drive to lead the technology revolution of the banking sector, we’ve been sharing our passion for areas like blockchain, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence. This focus allows us to leverage a willingness to provide business banking solutions that go beyond traditional offerings.
At a large organization in an established industry, there will always be“organizational inertia”: that is to say, it’s hard to adapt and respond to new threats (or opportunities) when the organization is busy staying focused on its day-to-day operations and delivering on expectations. The adage “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” often reigns supreme. Change is hard, and staying focused is key – especially when people’s finances, businesses, and homes are at stake. In recent years, however, the banking industry in Canada hit an inflection point. The processing power of cloud computers has finally reached a critical point where it is now cheaper to rent secure space on a server, rather than buy and house data stores on-premise. Not to mention the data loss risk reduction provided by redundancy systems in cloud storage.
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.
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.
Advancements in robotic process automation are enabling companies to quickly introduce improvements to outdated, complex, or error-ridden processes.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.
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.
Our definition of value extends beyond financial success to include growing inclusivity and how well people thrive in our digital world. Grounded in our core values, we know that building products that people love and trust is the only way to deliver sustainable value.
