Artificial intelligence is making credit analysis quicker and more productive.
There’s a ton of buzz on Wall Street about the impact artificial intelligence will have on the financial sector.
One recent study from the Society of Human Resource Management noted industry players like mortgage brokers, investment banking, certified public accounts, and insurance agents all make the “top 10” industry sectors most likely to experience “disruption” from AI.
Credit management could be another financial services sector tied tightly to artificial intelligence going forward, as the data-driven sector seems like a natural fit for credit services firms.
Take Moody’s, the credit ratings giant.
The company is increasingly using artificial intelligence to give clients deeper insights on borrowers (through the firm’s Research Assistant tool) and to make the credit data collection and analysis more accessible for clients use (via its CreditLens tool, which creates credit memos in seconds).
Moody’s AI push is all about getting good data into clients’ hands faster and with deeper analysis.
“For financial market participants, successfully navigating today’s complex risk landscape requires resource-intensive analysis of a vast array of research and data across several risk domains,” said Cristina Pieretti, general manager of digital insights for Moody’s Analytics. “With Moody’s Research Assistant, analysis that used to take hours can now be accomplished in minutes, freeing up more time for strategic decision-making.”
The company may be on to something big with its new set of AI tools.
The company reported that clients who participated in a pilot of Moody’s Research Assistant could save up to 80% of the time they spend on data collection and up to 50% on analysis using Research Assistant. “Overall, results suggest that Moody’s Research Assistant could save users up to 27% of their time spent performing the typical tasks and functions of a financial analyst,” the company reported.
Partnering With Google
Last October, Moody’s also teamed up with Google to use Google Cloud’s generative AI technologies to allow company clients to leverage new large language models (LLMs) to access new financial insights and summarize financial data more quickly.
“Moody’s and Google will explore co-creation of fine-tuned LLMs purpose-built for financial professionals, enabling customers to perform faster, deeper analyses of financial reports, disclosures, and other materials,” the company said. “For example, customers can interrogate, analyze, and draw decision-ready insight directly from financial disclosures.”
Moody’s clients will also have direct access to the company’s proprietary datasets through BigQuery, Google Cloud’s serverless data warehouse. With access to the company’s massive databases, clients “can build and access AI models, accelerating time-to-value through increased efficiency and individualized use cases for financial services professionals,” Moody’s reports.
“Moody’s deep expertise in understanding financial data, disclosures, and reporting uniquely position us to anchor development of fine-tuned large language models,” said Nick Reed, Chief Product Officer, Moody’s Corporation. “Through this partnership, research teams at Moody’s and Google Cloud will collaborate on fine-tuned LLMs and AI applications that will enable financial service professionals to produce new, proprietary insights faster than ever.”
Late last December, Moody’s also introduced its AI coding application, GitHub Copilot, which the company’s 1,500 software engineers are using to create better software engineering tools. The company expects to introduce more AI tools to its sales department this summer. Moody’s will also deploy Gen AI to summarize massive credit research PDF documents to make life easier for client decision-makers.
“(We see) AI as an enabler to human judgment in the ratings process,” said company president Michel West, as reported by Quartz. ‘We’ll be deliberate and transparent in the rating agency in terms of how we leverage generative AI. We’re in dialogue with our regulators to make sure that they understand how we’re going to do that,” West added.
Brian O’Connell, a former Wall Street bond trader and best-selling author, is a prominent figure in the finance industry. With a substantial background as an ex-Wall Street trader, he has authored two best-selling books: ‘The 401k Millionaire’ and ‘CNBC’s Creating Wealth’, demonstrating his profound knowledge of finance and investing.
Brian is also a finance and business writer for esteemed national platforms and publications, including CNN, TheStreet.com, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Fox News.
