Artificial intelligence is democratising who gets into the fintech game, and that spells good news for Bermuda, according to one Bermudian AI expert based in Canada.

Kyla Bolden, founder of Toronto educational technology company Wiz Learning, led a webinar for the Economic Development Department on Thursday called “Predictive, Prescriptive and Autonomous AI in Fintech”.

“You do not have to be somebody with years of coding experience, or years of start-up experience, to get into the AI space,” Ms Bolden said. “That makes it really, really exciting for countries like Bermuda, because we want to be fintech leaders.”

However, she addressed how AI has decreased the need for human labour: “It might sound like a scary thing, but studies have shown it will also create more jobs.

“There may not be as many needed in one area, because we are able to use AI agents and tools in order to make the process go quicker. But there will be a lot more jobs in other places.”

Ms Bolden did not elaborate much on the nature of the new jobs that would be created.

She said throughout history we have seen machines replace jobs.

“We saw that on farms tools replaced people having to pick crops,” she said. “I do not think it is as simple as saying AI will not replace jobs. It will. There are many jobs that I used to hire for, that I do not hire for any more because of AI.”

She added that it was definitely changing the job market for the average employee.

“It is making them able to make decisions a lot quicker, based on data-driven insights,” she said. “In the past, it might have taken the employee months to aggregate the data to make that decision. Now, it can take less than a day.”

Last November, the website Fintech Futures reported that the global market for AI in fintech was estimated at $22.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $79.4 billion by 2030.

Ms Bolden said AI is changing every single industry.

“Fintech is one of the largest industries in the world, and it impacts everyone’s lives,” she said.

AI is changing fintech through the increased use of virtual assistants, AI chatbots and fraud prevention. Ms Bolden said it has also been impacting the trading and investing space for a while, and is growing its presence in the regulatory compliance sphere.

“It is helping to ensure that financial institutions meet compliance requirements while making sure they are still being efficient,” she said. “It is also affecting cybercrime.”

On the one hand, it is making it easier for some financial institutions to detect fraud, but on the other, it was also acting as a tool for cybercriminals.

“It is important for us to have a good understanding of what is going on,” she said.

She pointed to Singapore, which is using AI to become a cashless society.

“It has enabled seamless instant transactions, making Singapore one of the leaders when it comes to digital finances,” she said. “It has also licensed AI-driven digital banks to improve financial access without physical branches.”

Ms Bolden said Estonia has AI-verification systems integrated into its fraud detection.

She reminded her audience that AI has been around for several decades, running e-mail spam filters in the early 2000s, and helping television streaming platforms to create recommendations for users, starting in the mid-2000s.

“AI has taken off so much in the last few years because tech developers have done a good job of commercialising it,” she said. “The average person can use it and benefit from it without having a technical background, or a deep knowledge of a specific topic.”