News@Ivey · Communications

Ivey and CIBC explore the future of artificial intelligence in banking

Jul 11, 2024

Ivey's MSc Digital Management students at CIBC Square in Toronto.

Whether it’s enhancing client experience or combatting fraud, there are many opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI) in banking. That said, many are still in the early stages of harnessing its potential. Why? We still face challenges in this fast-evolving environment, including data quality, available solutions, and regulatory constraints, to name a few.

Through a partnership with Ivey’s MSc Digital Management program, CIBC, one of Canada’s largest banks, recently hosted an exciting full-day event to explore important questions around emerging trends and technologies like AI, and how they can be best used to drive value for students and future clients. This collaboration focused on leveraging AI to maximize client impact while ensuring its responsible and ethical use.

As part of this partnership, the Ivey Digital Innovation Studio (IDIS) practicum included two AI-centered cases from CIBC. One case examined how banks might leverage AI capabilities to make the most impact on clients, while the other focused on responsible and ethical applications of AI and how to effectively communicate these innovations to the public. Students gathered insights from CIBC executives and external research, culminating in presentations to CIBC judges at CIBC Square on June 28. This event capped off a series of increasingly complex design sprints, involving clients such as United Way, Karis Disability Services, Ivey Publishing, and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

Developing future-ready talent

The event was a win-win for both Ivey and CIBC. Ivey students get a better understanding of how innovation is practiced and refined at CIBC with hands-on experience that will help them in their careers. CIBC gains a user’s perspective on potential innovations and has the opportunity to observe talent from Ivey, allowing CIBC to assess their skills and capabilities in a practical setting to consider them for future opportunities.

“Working with organizations like CIBC help us to keep the programming relevant by allowing our students to apply their classroom learnings to practical, real-world situations. We’re training our students to be relevant from day one,” said MSc Program Faculty Director Warren Ritchie.

Over the past three years, CIBC and Ivey have collaborated on IDIS challenges, each covering different topics like cryptocurrency, the future of payments, and key talent management trends. Keye Tang, Director of Enterprise Innovation at CIBC, highlighted the benefits of this partnership, noting that it allows CIBC to engage with students on the latest tech trends and showcase its commitment to innovation.

“By interacting with students throughout the month, we can observe their skills and attributes in practical scenarios, often revealing insights missed in brief interactions,” noted Tang.

From the classroom to the real world

Zoya Abbas, MSc ’22; and Berto Mill, MSc ’23, both now work at CIBC after first collaborating with the bank through IDIS. Abbas is a Tech and Innovation Consultant with CIBC and says her IDIS experience allowed her to apply her theoretical knowledge to a real scenario and hone her ability to tackle complex enterprise-wide challenges using Design Thinking. Mill works with CIBC’s Enterprise Innovation team and said IDIS taught him to identify, integrate, and apply emerging technologies and trends to create value for business organizations so that, by the last sprint, he and his team could deliver a professional-grade consulting engagement for CIBC.

“This experience not only provided me with a realistic scenario to demonstrate my skills, but also enabled me to build strong relationships with experienced leaders at the company, providing valuable mentorship opportunities and allowing me to deliver high-impact results from day one,” he said.

Mentorship, networking, and client-facing experience

Members of this year’s IDIS cohort shared similar takeaways and noted how learning from student teammates, managing stakeholders, and applying emerging technology to solve business challenges will help them in their future careers.

MSc DM student Massimo Chiarella’s group worked on the AI use case and developed an AI tracking tool to provide Generation Z banking customers with real-time income and spending data. Chiarella said he valued connecting with members of CIBC’s technology team to refine the project and added,

“The strength of IDIS, especially the sprint with CIBC, is that it places students in challenging situations where they must find innovative solutions to complex business problems, always ensuring that these recommendations are impact-oriented and rooted in rigorous research,” he said. “There is no better way to prepare students for future digital transformation projects in the workplace than by allowing them to lead these sprints and navigate the same challenges they would face outside of the classroom post-graduation.”

Fellow MSc DM student Alexa Holmes said she enjoyed learning about the ethical and corporate responsibility implications of using AI in large businesses and the importance of balancing the benefits with the risks.

“Participating in IDIS has been both challenging and enriching as it exposed me to real-world corporate dilemmas that I had never considered before,” she said. “IDIS has equipped me with invaluable insights into technological impacts, preparing me to step out into the workforce and support my future employers with digital transformation.”