Synechron Inc., a New York-based consulting and technology innovator in the financial services industry, has released the results of a survey conducted by the TABB Group for Synechron on the potential of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services.

The survey drew responses from executives from 92 banking and capital markets institutions. The executives are directly involved with technology decisions at their firm. 

The major takeaways from the blockchain survey are as follows:

• Over 55% of respondents think that over the next 10 years, blockchain will be a hugely important technology in financial services.
   
• Yet only 12% said they currently have any kind of deployments in blockchain – 88% are either in R&D or doing nothing.
   
• The top response on the main hurdles to blockchain adoption was “unclear legal and regulatory aspects”, followed by “unproven scalability and performance capabilities.” “Interoperability” was also a major concern.

“When it comes to blockchain, the biggest hurdle for financial services firms is regulation. That being said, we are seeing more and more firms embrace blockchain in areas such as real-time payments,” comments Wade Murray, Managing Director of innovation at Synechron. “Blockchain is more than just a pipe dream – it’s a powerfully real technology that could solve major problems for the financial industry.” 

When asked about AI/Machine Learning, 71% of respondents think that over the next 10 years, AI will be hugely important. However, 37% said that there is no activity at their institution; 34% said their institution is in R&D; 25% have small deployments; and only 3.5% said they have actively deployed AI. The high cost of developing and deploying AI technology was identified as the biggest barrier to adoption.

The survey was conducted as part of Synechron’s initiative to identify how blockchain and AI can be applied efficiently in the financial services firms. As part of this effort, Synechron held its InSync Forum at the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan in April, which saw participation from senior executives and technologists from 14 leading financial institutions discussing how blockchain and AI/machine learning could be applied within their enterprises.

"Our mission at Synechron is to explore the outer boundaries of the most advanced technologies and to identify how realistically and efficiently they can be applied within financial services firms,” comments Faisal Husain, Chief Executive Officer of Synechron. “We deeply understand how complex financial institutions are and we believe in harnessing innovative technology wisely to deliver the kind of efficiency, scalability and growth that firms are seeking.” 

Last month, Synechron established its digital innovation centre in central London, dedicated to next generation banking and insurance, with the objective of helping businesses leverage new and upcoming technologies, through the combined innovation of augmented reality, artificial intelligence, blockchain, natural language and biometrics, mobile, and touch & smart technologies.