Transformative data queries on-demand using Chatbots | The Financial Technologist

The financial markets sector has seen considerable investment in digital transformation and automation projects in the last few years. This, combined with the COVID pandemic which permanently changed working habits, has helped fuel the rapid rise and use of chatbots. We’re now seeing organisations start to explore chatbots to streamline operations and improve customer experience. Automation of tasks, real-time market insights, and personalised recommendations enhance efficiency and satisfaction. The adoption of these technologies will become crucial in staying competitive and meeting market demands. The growing importance of chatbots in our sector will transform the financial landscape in the next couple of years. Making the Case for Chatbots To understand why chatbots are already becoming more prevalent in the capital markets space let’s understand the key benefits. Automate Workflows Across the Trade Lifecycle Customers often need data to be delivered at the right time for it to be useful. In financial institutions with multiple incumbents, and siloed legacy technologies that don’t talk to each other, the use cases are more complex. Chatbots can automate many repetitive tasks, such as processing post-trade risk, clearing, settlement and regulatory reporting, whilst also enabling sales and trading to access the information they need quickly. For example, if a specific notice is coming out regarding an expiry or a corporate action or an identifier has changed, the right person needs to be notified at the right time. To make the user’s life even easier, this can be delivered with the appropriate context to enable them to trigger the necessary workflow, either on the desktop using open standards like FDC3 or over remotely over the cloud. Faster Access to High-Quality Data Chatbots can easily access large amounts of information and provide quick, accurate answers to common queries. This reduces the time spent searching for information and increases the speed of data retrieval. At ipushpull we help clients achieve this by configuring the chatbot of choice to whatever type of data is required. For example, working with ETD (formerly Euromoney TRADEDATA), we connected ETD’s database with over 110 exchanges, delivering access to global futures and options data to Symphony chat. 24/7 Availability Chatbots can work 24/7, making it possible to receive responses to queries at any time, regardless of whether it's during business hours or not. This ensures that information is always accessible, even outside of normal working hours. Improved User Experience Chatbots provide a conversational interface, making it easier for users to find the information they need. This improves the user experience and makes it faster and easier for employees to access the information they require. Combining chatbots with ipushpull allows users to – manually or programmatically - create watchlists, so notifications are sent only when something relevant occurs. This further improves workflow efficiency. Future Applications of Chatbots within Capital Markets We will also start to see natural language processing becoming more evident in chat-based workflows, although we are probably still a few years away from this point due to the ever-changing specific vocabulary or vernacular used in some workflows, which can be difficult to model. Here’s an example of where things are going. One client we’re currently working with has built bots for post-trade confirmations for equity derivatives. In this scenario, there is a tier one bank on the other side and the bots just deal with each other without any human intervention. There will always be some tasks that humans need to get involved in but using technology to massively reduce the time required to retrieve data will enable front-office, middle and back-office teams to self-serve and free up time that can be used to work on higher-value tasks. Teams that embrace this type of technology receive instant responses rather than waiting for their colleagues to respond to emails. Conclusion The adoption of chatbots will revolutionise the way data is queried. By automating repetitive tasks, providing instant responses, and working 24/7, chatbots can significantly enhance data query handling and improve efficiency. By integrating chatbots with your data sources, organisations can streamline operations, improve productivity, and ensure that information is always accessible and up to date. The future of data handling is bright with the adoption of chatbots, offering a solution to the challenges of managing increasing amounts of data. You can read Matthew's article and further industry insights in the latest edition of The Financial Technologist. Download your free copy here.