Earlier this month, Projective Group’s Bill Oates, expert in AI and Financial Services transformation, was invited to speak at Strathmore University Business School in Nairobi, Kenya. Organised in partnership with University College Dublin, the event brought together leaders from academia, government, and industry to explore the responsible use of AI in financial services. In the piece below, Bill shares key takeaways from his keynote, panel contributions, and insights from the inspiring work taking place in Kenya’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
It was a real pleasure to visit iLabAfrica at Nairobi’s Strathmore University Business School in Kenya a couple of weeks ago. The visit was arranged through University College Dublin, who are partner institution of Strathmore. I visited with Prof Kate Robson Brown, Vice-President for Research and Innovation and we each spoke on AI in respective fields and to deliver a Master Class the day before.
I was asked to deliver a keynote and participate on a panel on the subject of “Trust, Transparency and Fairness in AI for Financial Services”. I provided the audience with examples of current AI implementation from my own work and that of my Projective Group colleagues. I described our portfolio of experience in AI implementation, from model building, through GenAI agent implementation, training and strategy development. Building on that experience I showcased our emerging framework for enterprise AI delivery – shown below.
I finished the presentation with some reflections on the core topic of trust, transparency and fairness, where I set out the thesis that this rests on three fundamental foundational layers:
As a regulated industry, Financial Services are already subject to a high degree of government regulatory oversight, which in turn reflects societal pressures and norms. There is divergence in these standards, which in turn may lead to variation in trust across different countries and regions. Of course, many financial services organisations chose to go further than the minimum required by regulation and there is often considerable latitude in interpretation and application. So Corporate Behaviours become significant. We sometimes see industry standards and voluntary codes being significant – right now there is a gap in this respect for AI and it interesting to see what might emerge. Finally, trust, transparency and fairness is being addressed in the AI Technology itself and particularly in the Architectural Framework in which it is deployed. Reinforcing the classic ‘Human in the Loop’ approach to oversight are developments in algorithmic transparency and explainability, improved techniques for validating and verifying AI and agentic memory mechanisms that address bias and drift over time.
Many financial services organisations chose to go further than the minimum required by regulation.
Also presenting in my session were the Kenya Revenue Authority who presented on their eTIMS solution for tracking payments and qualifying VAT and expense deductions. This is a direct cousin of Projective Group’s ‘VAT Pot’ entry into UK Finance’s RLN Hackathon in 2024 and is a perfect example of how emerging economies like Kenya can accelerate their capabilities at great pace and be a source of inspiration for more mature markets. Other speakers included the Central Bank of Kenya, a representative of the Minister for Digital Services and the AI lead for Safaricom. It was a fantastic panel and a huge testament to the pioneering with of iLabAfrica and Strathmore University.
Established in 2006, Projective Group is a leading Financial Services change specialist.
We are recognised within the industry as a complete solutions provider, partnering with clients in Financial Services to provide resolutions that are both holistic and pragmatic. We have evolved to become a trusted partner for companies that want to thrive and prosper in an ever-changing Financial Services landscape.
