Citi Perspectives Fall 2023: Transforming Treasury

8 | Treasury and Trade Solutions Citi Perspectives AI can help clients ensure compliance with trade regulations and reporting requirements by analyzing trade transactions and identifying potential compliance breaches happening in their environment. he added. Citi CEO Jane Fraser believes emerging technologies are a complement to human ingenuity and can help us become more productive by eliminating routine tasks and freeing us up to focus on higher-order work. Technology is being infused into every financial process Artificial intelligence (AI) powered models can analyze historical transactional data, market data and external factors to provide reliable, real-time cash flow forecasts for finance teams that drive better decisions around cash management or even trade financing. And more and more they are looking to their banking partners to provide these capabilities. AI can also assist in identifying and mitigating risks in trade and treasury operations, while Upskilling the treasury department Process transformation and talent development are essential components of a successful digital strategy, with technological solutions alone often being insufficient. Anwar said most treasury departments don’t have their own IT department or a technology team dedicated to them, something which he expects to change as finance departments work to bridge their skill gap. “There are new skills that workers and decision- makers will need to learn to make better decisions around data security, privacy, access management, data visualization, and the coding tools that they have to have for making those decisions,” Anwar said. Human intellect cannot be replaced by machines, bleeding-edge algorithms can analyze transactional data and detect patterns and anomalies for fraudulent activities. “In the world we’re living in, in which speed is everything, AI can be a real differentiator,” Anwar said. “The data life cycle is very necessary to understand, particularly when you are joining multiple data sources and making sure the lineage of the data comes from an accurate place,” he added. The key to implementing a successful digital program is “identifying where [a business] is doing something manually where you can automate it through a platform solution,” he said. Another “hot” area, he said, is leveraging AI as a personalized recommendation engine to automate daily responsibilities.