AI | Innovation Challenge

AI Innovation Challenge sprint 

The AI Innovation Challenge 2024 tasked industry participants to address a use case that meets the current need of financial and professional services (FPS) by advancing the development of innovative AI solutions in the face of evolving digital threats.   

Specially, the Challenge use case asked “how can AI prevent online fraud at the earliest possible stage by identifying and tracking fake identities – including synthetic identities and image or audio deepfakes?”   

The City of London Corporation and Microsoft were pleased to welcome a variety of FPS to participate in this year’s AI Innovation Challenge. They were Checkout.com, Clear.Bank, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), NatWest, Revolut, HSBC, Nationwide and Mastercard. Working across a seven week sprint, representatives collaborated with tech companies whose solutions could address the use case. Following a competitive application process, The City of London Corporation and Microsoft were delighted to confirm the following companies to participate:  SureCert, Legal-Pythia LLP, Athenian Tech, Reality Defender, Corsound AI, Sumsub, Ask Silver, Sightengine, Datambit and iProov.   

In addition to weekly 1:1 meetings to enhance their solutions and ensure they reflected the needs of FPS, participants benefitted from expertise and input from  Supporting Partners Microsoft, the Department for Business and Trade, NayaOne and London & Partners.  

The Challenge concluded with a public showcase event at Guildhall. Participant feedback has been positive with: 

• Almost half of the tech firms saying that participating had accelerated product development by 3 months, with one tech firm saying 9 months. 
• Many of the tech participants confirmed that the Challenge allowed them to validate their solutions and gain valuable insights from the financial services sector. 
• 100% of the financial services achieved what they wanted to from the Challenge which included a better understanding of technology developments in this space and a chance to share advice and learnings with the tech participants 
• 100% of the financial services plan to continue engagement with at least one of the tech companies from the Challenge.   
• 95% of all participants would recommend participating in the Challenge. 
• 100% of tech firms confirmed that participating in the Challenge had improved their understanding of the needs of financial services.  

Background 

Financial and professional services (FPS) are at the vanguard of investing in and adopting AI technologies, with businesses harnessing the benefits of AI across priority areas including improving customer experience, fraud detection and efficiency. 

At the same time, AI has greatly increased the capabilities of those inflicting cybercrimes and fraud on FPS firms both in terms of creating new forms of attack, but also in increasing the volume and impact of those attacks. 

In response to AI lowering the barrier to entry for cyber criminals and the anticipated increase in AI enabled crimes, the 2024 AI Innovation Challenge aimed to ensure FPS could better draw upon innovative AI solutions to strengthen their fraud defences to combat the threats now being faced.  

Following a series of engagement with representatives from across the technology and FPS ecosystem, the use case for the AI Innovation Challenge 2024 was identified. It asked: 

 “How can AI prevent online fraud at the earliest possible stage by identifying and tracking fake identities such as synthetic identities and image or audio deepfakes?” 

£459.7m cost of APP fraud to the public in 2023

AI offers a tremendous opportunity for financial services. In fact, the sector is at the vanguard of adoption of AI, with many already using the technology to enhance a variety of applications and services across their business. 

However, the evolution of generative AI has lowered the barrier to entry for threat actors who are increasingly able to commit online fraud on a larger, more impactful scale. AI-generated fake identities are one method on the rise, with one report suggesting that deepfake incidents increased 700% in fintech in 2023. 

Similarly, deepfake images and audio risk enhancing and increasing APP fraud, which cost the public £459.7mn in 2023. Partnered with the rapid pace at which AI Innovation is advancing attack methods, it is more important than ever that financial services have the most innovative technological solutions at their disposal to protect their customers and retain their competitive advantage. 

The AI Innovation Challenge provided Datambit with an unprecedented opportunity to understand the landscape of AI fraud, including regulatory drivers, growth via partnerships, potential collaborations for maximising potential and efficiency of existing solutions, enabling Datambit to improve its go-to-market strategy and better anticipate, intercept and deter digital fraud in financial services. The added benefits were meeting likeminded companies as well as individuals, exchanging insights and gaining added visibility across the board, thus helping Datambit refine its product and its offerings to financial services, with the added knowledge of market cohesion.
Dr. Ashima Chopra, Co-founder and CEO, Datambit

The Challenge was an incredible opportunity to join forces with industry peers and tech companies to fast-track the development of innovative AI solutions for tackling cyber and fraud issues in financial services….Collaborating with the tech companies on this challenge was absolutely engrossing. And the outcomes? Simply fantastic! We've seen product roadmaps evolve across multiple areas at once. This collaboration has truly paid off!
Colette Hanley , CISO, Checkout.com