From Node to Network: ING WBAA at World Summit AI
On the 11th and 12th of October, World Summit AI took place in Amsterdam.
The summit is the world’s only and first industry organized applied AI event, meaning that to be involved you should be leading some AI initiative, no matter what industry. ING decided to become a main sponsor for the summit, ensuring that the classic ING logo was visible throughout the venue Furthermore, the bank had provided speakers to give presentations and participate with the rest of the summit. Additionally, there was a large ING booth where during the summit attendees would come and converse with our IT recruiters, AI experts and business development heads for AA/AI.
The Summit brought together 100s of the brightest brains in artificial intelligence, with 2,000 of the world’s most active AI explorers from over 55 countries. Companies such as Apple, Facebook, Alibaba, IBM, Amazon, Ebay, Netflix and more had a speaker or visible presence at the summit. ING was the only financial institution present, and this was picked up on by several attendees.
The heads of Wholesale Banking Advanced Analytics, Bolke de Bruin and Frank Derks, gave a headline presentation to show the bank’s commitment to and expertise in these rising technologies. The headline presentation was titled “From node to network: Transforming our relationship with clients by AI” and was presented to a crowd of roughly 2000 attendees. Their presentation explained how a network such as that of V&D and its clients, peers and competitors couldn’t fully be understood by humans. For the real intricacies of such a large network to be visualised and understood, AI must be applied.
Arnaud Stuart-Cohen, of the ING sustainability team, moderated the ethics panel which took place on the second day of the summit. Ethical dilemmas are not unheard of in the rising market of AI. Here ING got to show part of the ethical conduct that should drive developments in AI for the bank and further.
Furthermore, the head of Innovation of ING WB, Ivar Wiersma, also took the stage as the chair for the “AI IN ACTION, ENTERPRISE STORIES — How AI has transformed our business” stream. This stream consisted of many stories involving how AI helped revolutionize or kickstart the business the speakers represented. The stream attracted many attendees interested in the applicable nature of AI.
Throughout the Summit, ING employees present at the booth were positively stunned with the volume of attention given towards the bank. Attendees of the Summit asked questions from the experts at the booth on topics of application, deep learning and more; whilst others networked with some of the brightest minds in AI. To the pleasure of the organisers, the booth maintained its bustling environment until the last minutes of the Summit, ensuring that every attendee had witnessed some of the ING presence and knowledge of AI.
