BigTech is necessary to facilitate the compute needed to run large-scale AI models, the chief information officer (CIO) of Deutsche Bank’s corporate arm has said.

Compute can have several definitions including the number of computations necessary to carry out a task; hardware such as GPUs; or a technology stack merging software and hardware.

On Tuesday during a panel about AI and the future of technology at Money 2020 in Amsterdam, Joanne Hannaford, CIO and chief product officer (CPO) at Deutsche Bank’s corporate bank said that it is hard to imagine an organisation that would not look to BigTech to support the development far-reaching genAI systems.

During the panel discussion, chief technology officer AI and chief operating officer at ING Marnix van Stiphout also said that there is lots of opportunity for BigTech and banks to collaborate.

Hannaford went on to say that financial services "doesn’t have the best track record" for introducing technology seamlessly; suggesting that banks haven't always been inclusive with the rapid roll out of mobile banking, given that not all societies or demographics use the technology.

“Within the AI context we need to be more considerate,” she continued.

The CIO went on to say that for financial services providers, it's a "dangerous" position to be in to not have AI as a "core discussion point", explaining that at Deutsche Bank it doesn't feel like a topic they are debating.

"We are looking for use cases to apply it more," she said. "The difficult question is how quickly and how much time we have – that horizon is very close.

"More AI in our day to day lives and more intrusive AI is a clear indicator that we do not have a lot of time."

Money 2020 Europe is taking place at the RAI Amsterdam from 4 June - 6 June.

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