Huawei Cloud and Pangu AI Revolutionize the Finance Industry
In the ever-evolving landscape of the finance industry, Huawei Cloud has emerged as a transformative force, ushering in a new era of innovation with its powerful AI model, Pangu, and comprehensive «Everything as a Service» solutions, as outlined in Fintech Magazine News. This revelation comes from Frank Dai, President of Huawei Cloud Middle East & Central Asia, during his visionary address at the Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW).
Recent findings from a Cloud Business Survey conducted by PwC reveal a significant trend in the financial sector. Two-thirds of financial services organizations are increasingly turning to the cloud as a catalyst for innovation and growth. This shift is not surprising, given the cloud’s accessibility to robust built-in features and services, all while harnessing the immense potential of artificial intelligence. Additionally, the cloud offers unlimited, flexible capacity, enabling financial organizations to swiftly scale their operations, freeing them from the constraints of legacy technology.
The message resounding from ADFW is clear: migrating to the cloud can supercharge financial institutions and set the stage for a promising future. The Huawei Cloud Fintech Summit Middle East and Central Asia 2023, held in conjunction with ADFW, witnessed several groundbreaking announcements that promise to reshape the entire financial service chain.
At the core of these announcements is Huawei Cloud’s powerful Pangu 3.0 AI large language model, combined with the flexibility of Huawei Cloud. Together, they offer traditional banks and fintech companies the means to transform their services and elevate the customer experience. An Bohui, VP of Public Cloud at Huawei Cloud Middle East & Central Asia, emphasized, «Huawei Cloud has been engaged in digital transformation of the financial industry for many years. Through innovation in infrastructure, application agility, and business intelligence, Huawei Cloud provides better options for global financial customers.»
However, the journey towards digital transformation is fraught with challenges. A report by McKinsey highlights that only 30% of banks that have undergone digital transformations consider them successful. This can be attributed to significant technical debt, a complex IT architecture, and a lack of innovation. Huawei Cloud steps in to address these challenges, as senior executives showcased at the Fintech Summit, illustrating how their solutions can help financial institutions overcome these obstacles.
One noteworthy solution unveiled at the summit is GaussDB, which caters specifically to the needs of the financial industry. It leverages software-hardware synergy and full-stack innovation to provide high availability, security, performance, elasticity, and AI-native features. Alex Zhao, General Manager of Global Finance for Huawei Public Cloud Business, emphasized its ease of deployment and migration, making it an ideal choice for financial institutions looking to launch purpose-built services swiftly.
Scalability is crucial in the digital age, and Huawei Cloud can accommodate this need. The platform enables customers to scale rapidly, handling spikes in demand, such as those seen during a Black Friday ecommerce sale, with ease. In fact, customers can scale up to 8,000 containers within a mere 30 seconds, significantly boosting efficiency.
In addition to infrastructure and services, Huawei Cloud offers comprehensive support, including consulting services to navigate compliance and regulations, addressing the vital issue of encryption and security, particularly critical in the financial sector.
Recent studies underscore the pivotal role of cloud and AI in the finance industry. According to a survey commissioned by Temenos, 79% of banks believe that banking will become embedded, with 20% planning to evolve their business model to offer Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) to brands and fintechs. Additionally, 51% of respondents anticipate that banks will no longer own data centers within the next five years, emphasizing the urgency of transitioning to the public cloud for agility, efficiency, and security.
While AI is poised to reshape the finance industry significantly, a survey by Synechron reveals that cloud priorities take precedence, reflecting a cautious approach to adopting new AI tools while embracing the cloud’s capabilities. Huawei Cloud adeptly combines the strengths of cloud technology and artificial intelligence into a single, powerful solution, with Pangu as the foundational model.
Frank Dai, President of Huawei Cloud Middle East & Central Asia, shared his collaborative vision with the finance industry at ADFW under the theme «Everything as a Service: AI Reshapes Finance.» He highlighted the industry’s unique requirements for reliability, professionalism, and rigorous deployment of big models. Huawei Cloud solidified its commitment to this vision by signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with leading regional fintechs Finmaal, Klaim.ai, and Emirates Digital Wallet, a move poised to play a pivotal role in advancing cloud-native and AI models.
The Middle East, a key market for Huawei Cloud, holds tremendous potential for financial digital transformation, thanks to its high mobile internet penetration rates. Huawei’s extensive investment in cloud infrastructure across the region, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt, is opening doors for local development and deployment of technology and applications on the cloud. This all-in-one solution approach aligns with the diverse requirements of various industries, as Huawei Cloud aims to provide end-to-end solutions.
As the finance industry embarks on a historic digital transformation, with banking and payments evolving at a breakneck pace, the synergy of powerful public cloud and innovative AI solutions from Huawei Cloud offers a glimpse into a promising future for fintech. Huawei Cloud’s commitment to bridging the gap between cloud technology and artificial intelligence stands as a testament to its vision of reshaping the finance industry for the better.