BNY Mellon AI Hub Managing Director Michael Demissie

EPISODE SUMMARY

Mike breaks down some of the key AI solutions being used at BNY Mellon and shares his thoughts on the many possible future implementations of these emerging technologies. He also unpacks how their enterprise AI team chooses what to prioritize before addressing the importance of demystifying AI capabilities — both within and outside of an organization.

EPISODE NOTES

Joining us today to provide insight on how to put together a credible AI solutions team is Mike Demissie, Managing Director of the AI Hub at BNY Mellon. We talk with Mike about what to consider when putting together and managing such a diverse team and how BNY Mellon is implementing powerful AI and ML capabilities to solve the problems that matter most to their clients and employees. To learn how BNY Mellon is continually innovating for the benefit of their customers and their employees, along with Mike’s thoughts on the future of generative AI, be sure to tune in!Key Points From This Episode:

• Mike’s background in engineering and his role at BNY Mellon.
• The history of BNY Mellon and how they are applying AI and ML in financial services.
• An overview of the diverse range of specialists that make up their enterprise AI team.
• Making it easier for their organization to tap into AI capabilities responsibly.
• Identifying the problems that matter most to their clients and employees.
• Finding the best ways to build solutions and deploy them in a scalable fashion.
• Insight into the AI solutions currently being implemented by BNY Mellon.
• How their enterprise AI team chooses what to prioritize and why it can be so challenging.
• The value of having a diverse set of use cases: it builds confidence and awareness.
• Their internal PR strategy for educating the rest of the organization on AI implementations.
• Insight into generative AI's potential to enhance BNY Mellon’s products and services.
• Ensuring the proper guardrails and regulations are put in place for generative AI.
• Mike’s advice on pursuing a career in the AI, ML, and data science space.

QUOTES:

“Building AI solutions is very much a team sport. So you need experts across many disciplines.” —Mike Demissie

“The engineers need to really find a way in terms of ‘okay, look, how are we going to stitch together the various applications to run it in the most optimal way?’” —Mike Demissie

“It is not only opportunity identification, but also developing the solution and deploying it and making sure there's a sustainable model to take care of afterwards, after production — so you can go after the next new challenge.” —Mike Demissie

“There's endless use of opportunities. And every time we deploy each of these solutions  actually sparks ideas and new opportunities in that line of business.” —Mike Demissie

“Not only is it important to raise the level of awareness and education for everyone involved, but you can also tap into the domain expertise of folks, regardless of where they sit in the organization.” —Mike Demissie

“Demystifying, and really just making this abstract capability real for people is an important part of the practice as well.” —Mike Demissie

“Remember,  still is day one. As much as all the talk that is out there, we're still figuring out the best way to navigate and the best way to apply this capability. So continue to explore that, too.” —Mike Demissie