Good morning. What will the future of finance look like? Adena Friedman, chair and CEO of Nasdaq and C.S. Venkatakrishnan, group chief executive at the global financial services company Barclays, shared their predictions during the Fortune Global Forum conference in New York City this week.
“I think this is a renaissance period for technology in the industry, and it will be for the next decade,” Friedman told Fortune executive editor Lee Clifford.
New York-based Nasdaq provides technology to 130 other markets around the world in addition to its own, Friedman said. Driving more liquidity into those domestic markets will require opening up the capital flows with less friction in terms of global payments, she said. Payment rails will modernize, and great use of cloud services in running markets will create more scalability, Friedman said. “AI plays a huge role in all of that,” she said.
Friedman also pointed out that cybersecurity will have to become even more sophisticated to “manage crime out of the system.” It’s critically important that banks and companies like Nasdaq, which provide services to banks “leverage the AI capabilities to the best of its ability in order to catch the bad guys,” she said.
The future of finance is data-centric, Venkatakrishnan said. One example he cites is harnessing and analyzing data more efficiently in order to improve financial and investment decisions.
CFOs are preparing for the finance function to be redefined by AI and automation allowing everyone from accountants to financial planning and analysis professionals to focus more on strategic thinking. Some startups are even developing “AI coworkers” for CFOs.
So what types of skill sets are executives looking for in employees to usher in this new era of finance? “Clearly in the banking industry or in finance, some amount of economics and finance and accounting is important,” Venkatakrishnan said. “But the technological skill set and the ability to use it and understand its potential and its risks is absolutely important.”
Since Nasdaq is a technology company, about 50% of its people are in the development and engineering organization, Friedman said. As Nasdaq continues to bring more AI capabilities into its products and embed them into the agile teams, “data science is a critical component of our skill set, data engineering as well,” Friedman said.
However, soft skills are still essential, too, she said. “And one of the things that we really focus on is having a culture where we have constant curiosity and a growth mindset,” she added.
To hear more of Friedman and Venkatakrishnan's insights, and their take on the post-election market, you can watch the full interview here.
Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
The following sections of CFO Daily were curated by Greg McKenna.
