CompaniesFinancial ServicesAWSPrint articleJamie SimonMar 18, 2025 – 8.35amSaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginArtificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the financial services sector at a pace few could have predicted even five years ago.AI-powered fraud detection, hyper-personalised customer experiences, and generative AI-driven automation are no longer just competitive advantages, they are becoming essential capabilities. At Amazon Web Services, we’re seeing agentic AI being another leap forward in the fast-evolving landscape of AI, creating systems that can work on their own, make decisions based on data and learn to optimise their implementation.Jamie Simon, director of financial services at AWS Australia and New Zealand.Yet, as banks embrace AI, they must also navigate complex hurdles: modernising legacy systems, ensuring security and compliance, and thinking beyond technology by addressing talent, culture, operating model and governance enablers to capitalise on AI’s full potential.For Australia’s banks, the shift to cloud has been a critical first step in this transformation. Today, it is about moving beyond the “why” of cloud adoption. Institutions are now focused on the “now what” - scaling modernisation and AI-driven solutions while maintaining resilience, trust, and security. The aim is no longer modernisation through migration; true progress lies in integrating AI deeply into banking operations to unlock its full value.AI is reshaping fraud preventionAdvertisementOne of AI’s most immediate and tangible impacts is in fraud detection and financial crime prevention. AI changes the game by analysing vast amounts of data in real time, identifying patterns, and predicting fraudulent activity before it occurs. Banks are leveraging AI to detect subtle anomalies in customer behaviour - signals that may indicate identity theft, payment fraud, or scam activity.Importantly, AI is not just improving fraud detection; it is transforming prevention. While traditional AI flags suspicious transactions, generative AI enables real-time intervention. Generative AI-powered assistants can engage directly with customers and banking agents, providing real-time, context-aware warnings and guiding intervention before fraud occurs. By shifting from detection to proactive prevention, AI is redefining fraud mitigation.AI and personalisation are elevating the customer experienceBeyond security, AI is revolutionising how banks interact with their customers.AI-driven chatbots are reducing response times and handling routine customer inquiries more efficiently. Generative AI technology, like the one in our Amazon Connect contact centre service, helps enhance call centre interactions by equipping customer service teams with richer insights and suggested responses in real-time, resulting in customers being put on hold less. Evolving agentic AI capabilities will enable customer service teams to go a step further and take action automatically to resolve customer queries.For example, since its launch in 2021, Nibby,NIB’s AI-powered voice and text AI assistant, has handled over 4 million member queries. By reducing the need for manual support, Nibby has lowered chat-based interaction support by 60 per cent and voice call support by 15 per cent, and delivered more than $22 million in savings.Now enhanced by Amazon Bedrock, our generative AI service that provides access to a choice of the world’s leading AI models, Nibby can better understand complex queries with multiple follow-up questions, and personalise its interactions with members leading to faster resolution and higher customer satisfaction.The challenge of modernisation and accelerating business transformationFor all its promise, AI’s full potential cannot be realised without overcoming structural and technological barriers. Many banks still operate on legacy systems that were never designed for AI-driven decision-making. Simply layering AI onto outdated infrastructure limits its effectiveness and can create security risks.This is why cloud adoption has become a strategic imperative. Cloud-native architectures enable banks to modernise core systems, scale AI models, integrate data seamlessly, and deploy machine learning capabilities at speed. Judo Bank exemplifies this shift, having migrated to a fully serverless, event-driven architecture. This transformation has eliminated downtime, reduced transaction processing times, and enabled same-day issue resolution.At the same time, AI transformation is not solely a technology shift - it requires a fundamental change in how banks build their technology platforms. Instead of simply integrating AI into existing workflows, institutions must establish guardrails that enable teams to experiment safely at speed, minimising the cost of failure while scaling successful initiatives. CBA is a great example, recently launching their state-of the-art AI Factory, providing a structured framework for rapid development, testing, and deployment, ensuring AI solutions are built with security, resilience, and compliance at its core.The road aheadWhile banks have been leveraging AI for nearly a decade, it’s still early days. In the years ahead, we will see more predictive financial tools, smarter risk management solutions, driving more productivity and automation through agentic AI, and seamless AI-powered interactions that redefine how customers engage with their banks. But as AI capabilities expand, so too will expectations around security, transparency, and responsible use.Banks that succeed in this transformation will be those that go beyond merely adopting AI - they will be the ones that rethink their operations, modernise their infrastructure, and place trust at the heart of innovation. AI is not just another technology wave; it is a fundamental shift in how financial services are delivered.Jamie Simon is director of financial services at AWS Australia and New Zealand.SponsoredbyAWSThis content has been funded by an advertiser and written by the Nine commercial editorial team.SaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginLicense articleFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MoreAWSFetching latest articlesSports stars keep shifting their watch brand allegiancesBani McSpeddenDark Emu beer with native grains at this destination breweryCrocs turn 23 years old. 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