What to expect at the AWS Financial Services Symposium: Watch theCUBE’s exclusive on-demand coverage starting May 11

Financial services are becoming more personal, more automated and increasingly AI-driven.

However, a big hurdle remains: AI trust. In an industry that handles sensitive financial data, there is little room for error, and studies show that 67% of enterprises don’t trust their underlying revenue data when it comes to AI.

“Agentic AI in financial services is no longer about building the biggest models; it’s about building the most trusted systems,” said Rob Strechay, principal analyst at theCUBE. “The real challenge is governance: what data agents can access, where it lives, how decisions are explained and how risk is controlled. The firms that succeed will treat AI as a data platform architecture problem, not just a model problem. That’s how FinServ moves from AI experimentation to real [Return on AI].”

At Amazon Web Service’s Financial Services Symposium, industry leaders will explore how banks, capital market firms and insurers can build AI systems that are reliable and efficient. Tune in for theCUBE’s on-demand coverage, starting May 11. (* Disclosure below.)

Trust is the new currency

Enterprises worldwide have concerns about AI-powered financial services, with more than four in five consumers expressing doubts in the U.S. Privacy protection and transparency remain top priorities and will continue to be the guiding criteria for whether AI adoption is succeeding or failing.

“The key thing to evaluate at this summit is simple,” said Scott Hebner, principal analyst at theCUBE. “While today’s AI systems can produce answers, can they produce judgments and decisions that you can defend? That distinction will define the next generation of AI leaders in financial services. Trust is now the currency of AI ROI in financial services.”

An important factor for increasing consumer confidence in AI is data trust, according to Larry Hunt, field chief data officer for financial services at Ataccama Corp. The company works with AWS to help enterprises build trusted, AI-ready data environments, with Ataccama ONE available through AWS Marketplace for data quality, governance and management. Without the necessary data and context, financial firms may struggle to achieve critical use cases. Governance, too, enables trust by guaranteeing reliable and compliant outcomes from AI models.

“The data conversation has shifted from where it’s been historically, which was an IT black box that nobody understood, to a conversation with CEOs and boards of what they can do with their data to glean value for the company,” said Hunt in an interview with theCUBE. “A lot of that has been accelerated in recent months with the evolution of AI, and what companies think they can do with it to further drive value for their companies.”

Agents are the future of financial services

AWS has accelerated its development of agentic services for financial institutions. AI agents not only automate repeatable tasks, a recent AWS report contends, but are also capable of synthesizing customer data and incorporating critical context about banking transactions.

The overall shift is toward more autonomous financial systems, Andrew Renzella of AWS wrote in a recent blog, but according to a Forrester study commissioned by the company, 57% of financial services organizations are still developing internal capabilities needed to fully leverage agentic AI’s potential. One major obstacle is legacy system integration, with organizations expressing concerns about transitioning to cloud-native systems — a key focus for AWS.

Next steps will involve employing AI in such a way that it compliments existing customer service capabilities, and optimizes financial operation workflows. Agentic AI also has the potential to “democratize” financial expertise by providing personalized guidance to customers who might not otherwise be able to afford high-tier advisors.

“What is at stake is not just productivity, but institutional trust,” Hebner said. “For banks, insurers and capital markets firms, AI that cannot justify, verify and govern its decisions introduces operational, regulatory and reputational risk. The winners will be the firms that treat AI trust as a business mandate, not a technical afterthought.”

TheCUBE event livestream

Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Financial Services Symposium, on-demand starting May 11.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Financial Services Symposium, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.

SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Guests

During theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Financial Services Symposium, don’t miss insights from financial services, cloud and AI leaders exploring how trusted data, agentic systems and governance are reshaping the future of banking, insurance and capital markets.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Financial Services Symposium event. Sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE