Bharat Mabbu
Head of AI, Clearwater Analytics
Bharat Mabbu is a seasoned Senior Technology Leader with extensive experience of two decades leading technological teams in multiple domains such as B2B, Advanced Integrations, Data Warehouses, and AI/ML products and services. He has held leadership positions in companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and BaaN among others. Presently, he is holding the position of Sr. Director of Software Engineering and General Manager – Generative AI at Clearwater Analytics. His educational background includes an MBA from XLRI (India), BS and MS in Computer Science from SVU (India). His skills are not limited to technical leadership and strategy but also passion for building high-performance engineering teams.
The Evolution of AI in Investment Functions
2024 is poised to be a groundbreaking year for Generative AI in the investment industry. As technology continues to revolutionize investment functions, Generative AI tools have taken center stage, offering unprecedented benefits in productivity and efficiency for early adopters. The focus for leaders has shifted towards improving the end-user experience, accuracy, reliability and new use cases. This is going to be about speed of business, everyone will eventually get to it, but the time lost will not be recovered and early adopters will have an edge.
Transparency, accuracy, personalization, and speed are universal must-haves for investors and their accounting teams. For those using it, Generative AI enables significant efficiency gains across these areas if applied meaningfully. Now, the investment industry is ready to take this new technology to the next level by pushing for faster knowledge, driving new functionality, and utilizing it for more ambitious use cases.
Trends Shaping the Space
One trend that will shape the investment accounting space in 2024 is the expansion of Generative AI’s knowledge base and how accounting accuracy can be achieved with LLM fused applications. Investment managers are already using Generative AI to tackle tasks such as content generation, summarization, and automation of complex processes. However, the future of Gen AI lies in enabling back-office users to ask intricate questions about their portfolios and gain an advantage over the market with higher quality information. This frees up accountants to perform higher value duties and allows investment professionals to make confident decisions about portfolio allocations.
The efficacy of Gen AI is not limited to only investment accounting, but will also continue rippling upwards, impacting other areas of workflow, particularly compliance and risk management. Compliance teams in financial services for example, will benefit from AI technology to accelerate the validation and verification process, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency in compliance and other related functions. The ability for AI when modeled right into the use cases to handle data privacy and security concerns is also unparalleled in terms of efficiency, and an incredible supplement for those with these responsibilities.
For firms in the financial services industry, leveraging AI solutions is crucial to outperforming competitors and minimizing economic uncertainty, facilitating the implementation of increased regulations, and gaining a better understanding of their and/or their client’s portfolios. Organizations that embrace AI technology gain a significant advantage, becoming faster, better, and more cost efficient. Those who remain skeptical or lag in adopting it, run the risk of obsolescence.
How Clearwater Helps
Clearwater delivers innovative technology and on-demand reporting to over 1,500 clients every day. By leveraging CWIC (pronounced quick), or Clearwater’s Intelligent Console, clients unlock Digital Specialists (DS’s) who can help transform the way we interact with, understand and analyze investment accounting data.
CWIC simplifies data analysis for new users, eliminates long support times, and offers a self- service platform with contextual assistance to revolutionize data interaction. With over $7 trillion in validated and reconciled assets, Clearwater has the verified data users can trust to improve their business.
Beyond reporting, CWIC also enables entirely new ways to leverage Generative AI and DS’s to help portfolio managers and traders gain actionable insights into investment portfolios, run optimization scenarios at scale, and receive actionable insights to more effectively and efficiently analyze and make investment decisions.
What if you had a team of AI digital specialists to help you accomplish daily mundane tasks. Or if there was a solution you could use to save time on items like pulling and analyzing data prior to a portfolio rebalance. Or had a research analyst who could help you quickly screen through security offerings. Imagine how your efficiency would increase with a virtual compliance manager who can build and update policies on-the-fly?
With AI’s potential for expanding knowledge bases, refining workflow efficiency, and impacting compliance, this tech will become an indispensable tool for investment teams. The future of investment management and reporting is powered by Generative AI, and the time to jump on board is now.
Click here to speak with one of our AI experts and learn how Clearwater can help you.