The technologies that has the opportunity to have the greatest change on the industry is really Generative AI. I think when people talk about AI they forget that we've actually been using narrow AI or traditional AI for over a decade, right? But what Generative AI does is has the opportunity to really provide a structural shift in the industry once it moves from the innovation labs into what we would call BAU processes, and it will start replacing some of the standard functions that we have in compliance, It will start replacing some of the standard regulatory oversight opportunities. And what we really need to think about is: as we go through these structural shifts, how do we then think about what are the different types of regulation models that we need to employ so that we're not just allowing the opportunities to flourish, but ensuring that we understand and mitigate the most harmful risks.

The existing regulatory architecture is really well designed to regulate and mitigate risks within industries. Given the change in both the velocity and the complexity of some of the technology changes that we're seeing, we're starting to see these risks manifest across industries, and there's a significantly higher interplay between the data privacy regulators, the competition regulators, and your traditional sectoral regulators like Financial Services, Energy, Aviation. So as we start to see risks manifest across sectors, I think we need to rethink the domestic and the international regulatory architecture to be much better able to both pick up at early stages, some of these risks that are cross-sectoral, but also then put in place mitigants that allow us to work across regulators.

Regulated entities have an absolutely vital role to play in the adaptation of the regulatory regime. What we really need is proactive engagement from both the major companies in each of the sectors, as well as the startups and scale ups, to help work with their regulatory policy teams to understand what are the emerging opportunities, what do their new business models look like, and to help proffer, what do they think the biggest risks that they're going to see in the sector are. It is then on the regulatory regulation and supervisory teams to develop that regulatory oversight model and then supervise and enforce against those regulated entities. But I think if you can have a clear engagement, in particular in policy development, you end up with a much more robust regulatory regime that actually reflects the business models that you're trying to regulate against. We are at the precipice of big technological change. We are still in the early footholds of that, and I'm really excited about the opportunities that this presents as we take some of these changes from FinTech festivals and innovation labs and tech sprints, and actually start to fundamentally change the business models of not just some of the new disruptive startups and scale up, but some of the big players in each of the industries.

I think we have the opportunity with some of the technologies that we're seeing come up to fundamentally change the way that we serve consumers to have a huge impact on things like financial literacy, financial inclusion, and to create a world that is genuinely more equal.

The thing that excites me about London is that it has always been a hub for financial innovation and growth. We genuinely have some of the smartest minds working in Insurance, in Banking, in Private Capital, in Asset Management, and the ability of these individuals to genuinely innovate is so exciting. You know, if you think about London as the place where the world takes its risk to market, we are at the forefront of some of the changes that have led to the greatest economic growth of our time. And I see the adaptation of new technology in the London market as an ability to continue in leading that journey.

When we think about the implications for the regulatory environment, that means that our regulators need to keep not just on top of the risks within the financial services sector, but they need to be thinking more cross sectorally. They need to be innovating in the way in which they not just bring risk into the system, but actually think about the mitigation of that risk in Financial Services, in technology, in online harms. And one of the ways we already have seen the UK government start to innovate is the implementation of the DRCF. So the DRCF is a body that actually crosses sectors that brings in data privacy concerns, that looks at sectorial risks. And so we're already seeing the innovation on the regulatory side that will allow the London market not just to grow and thrive, but to do so in a way that is safe and actually supports consumers.

What excites me most is the opportunity to help people who have previously been excluded from the financial system, the ability to create lower cost, more tailored products that genuinely support you in the life stage in which you're at, and to meet you in the life stage in which you're at to support you, whether or not that is, you know, new entry credit or a brand new bank account, or bespoke financial products that will allow you to buy a home or support your family.

I think AI has the ability to do good in a way that can bring that to market for individuals that previously either didn't understand financial products or were excluded because of traditional models. So I'm genuinely quite excited about the opportunities that this presents.