Artificial Intelligence Risk, Inc., an AI governance, risk, compliance, and cybersecurity (AI GRCC) software provider, announced this week the launch of a new AI financial regulatory consultancy service aimed at assisting companies at all stages of AI adoption.
Matt Spencer will lead the consultancy and will focus on helping companies optimize their financial and regulatory compliance through AI implementation. This includes helping firms use AI to increase efficiency while also maintaining cybersecurity.
“The intersection of AI and cybersecurity is our focus,” wrote Spencer in the statement announcing the consultancy’s launch.
“For a company to maintain its competitive advantage, it needs to embrace the efficiencies that AI provides. At the same time, AI introduces cybersecurity challenges that also need to be addressed effectively,” he wrote.
Alec Crawford, founder and CEO of Artificial Intelligence Risk spoke on a panel in May at the WealthManagement EDGE conference about “Navigating the AI-Driven Future of Wealth Management.”
In that discussion, he warned that firms should consider using separate software programs with their own internal large language models and avoid public systems.
“Larger institutions are going to have to be very careful about what is coming out of these models,” he said.
AI Risk Inc. launched its software in February after an initial seed-funding round of $1 million. In a June interview, Crawford said that he and his co-founder had asked themselves what they would have wanted if they were still in CCO or CTO roles in today’s AI environment and built out their software to meet those needs.
“A lot of RIAs and asset managers don’t know where to start,” said Crawford.
Edward Jones Announces Technology Milestones
This week, the firm announced a faster-than-expected uptake in financial planning use among advisors and clients.
The firm reported that since making Envestnet | MoneyGuide available to all its U.S. branch teams in November 2023 (the phased deployment was first announced in March of 2022), financial advisors have added more than 1.3 million clients to the platform, which is two times faster than expected, according to Edward Jones.
The rollout was part of the firm’s ongoing multi-year project to provide its more than 19,000 financial advisors with more technology tools, products, and service offerings.
Edward Jones has also been rolling out Salesforce Financial Services Cloud to its branch teams as part of the project and reports that the platform is now in more than 5,500 branches.
As it's rolled out fully in the next several months, the firm reported that it expects to begin enabling financial advisors and client support teams to tap into the platform's full capabilities, which will include data and insights drawn from the firm’s more than 8 million clients.
Texas And Utah Advisors: Semiconductor Manufacturing Could Equal New Technology Clients
It will take a while—maybe until 2030 or after—but Texas and Utah-based advisors interested in tech clients take note that Texas Instruments Inc. is set to receive $1.6 billion in Chips Act grants and $3 billion in government loans, according to an announcement from the Biden administration, reported by Bloomberg.
That funding is meant to help pay for one factory in Utah and two in Texas, which, according to the US Commerce Department, will cost about $18 billion through 2029. Those projects are expected to generate around 2,000 manufacturing jobs and thousands more in construction.
In total, Texas Instruments plans to spend around $40 billion across both states, including an additional two factories in Sherman, Texas. While it is likely that these will come online after 2030, the Commerce Department has said it will prioritize projects that will be done by the end of the decade.
The Chips Act is part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure and industrial policy initiative that has set aside $39 billion in direct grants, as well as tax credits, loans and loan guarantees worth $75 billion, which are meant to persuade companies to make more semiconductors on American soil.
