Artificial intelligence is making its way in the Québec financial services industry

Montreal’s status as an AI in financial services hub was extolled in a recent article published in Finance & Investissement. Here we share our key takeaways from this interesting overview on the growing importance of AI in the financial sector and Montreal’s role as a key enabler of this transformation. 

Montreal’s AI expertise is broad ranging, thanks to the sheer number of people studying and working in the field. Only at McGill University and University of Montreal, more than 250 researchers and doctoral students are involved in field related to AI. Our own LinkedIn research showed close to 20,000 workers with AI skills; 19% of them hold a PhD and 48% have a Master’s degree.

In recent years, the big players in technology have been flocking to Montreal for its world-class AI ecosystem and talent pool. Indeed, some of the world’s key players in AI have expanded their research activities in Montreal, most notably DeepMind, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Thales.

While there are multiple applications for AI, it can be argued that financial services are one of the sectors at the forefront of the AI transformation. Financial institutions, as well as insurers, have created specialized teams of AI researchers and engineers in various forms to design AI-compatible products. As an example, the article mentions RBC has created Borealis AI, a network of labs, one of which in Montreal, but other examples could be provided such as Intact Financial Group’s Data Lab which is also based in Montreal.

The article asserts that the use of AI in finance is also becoming more democratized, with new AI-driven start-ups becoming successful and generating interest with industry leaders. For example, the selection of Evovest by the Quebec Emerging Managers Program, a pillar in asset management in Quebec demonstrates just that. Founded in 2017, the asset management firm combines fundamental analysis and artificial intelligence and will be managing a mandate in global equities for the QEMP. Another example is Humania Insurance, a Ste-Hyacinthe, QC, based mutual insurance SME which became the first Canadian insurer to use predictive analytics to make the final decision, not just assessing risk, reducing the time required to issue an insurance contract to a few minutes instead of the typical 30 days.

Finally, the article references a university-industry partnership between IVADO, Quantolio and Fin-ML which seeks to improve investment processes and strategies by integrating the latest AI technologies and a collaboration between Université de Sherbrooke and La Place Insight, a former tenant of Finance Montréal’s Fintech Station, which seeks to develop AI algorithms specifically for financial services.

In short, Montreal’s AI ecosystem is quite effervescent right now. And because it is supported by a robust financial services industry, we are seeing more and more actual practical applications of AI in financial services, mobilizing financial institutions of all size, start-ups, fintechs, research labs, universities, etc.  

If you would like to learn more about Montreal as an AI-hub and a world-class financial center, contact our International Financial Center team.

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