Is AI the future of application development for financial markets?

The Challenging Environment of Today’s Financial Markets

Pushing the frontier of technology is a hallmark of the financial industry. Banks and asset managers used networks and network protocols long before the Internet. The technologies behind ultra-high-frequency data processing, analytics and trade automation are standard capabilities that other industries cannot match. Yet, despite their technology leadership, many financial firms also contend with a patchwork of outdated legacy systems that increasingly cannot deliver the performance, flexibility and scalability demanded by today’s markets.

In addition, a lot of complex work can happen off-platform. This means that time-consuming manual processes like data entry, trade workflow and reporting can increase the chance of error throughout pre- and post-trade processes. These deficiencies create challenges in trading operations, meeting the industry’s rigorous compliance requirements and, ultimately, competing. Technologists have worked hard to address these issues for years, but building new technology in-house is costly, time-consuming, and risky. Plus, prebuilt vendor solutions bring their own challenges and typically don’t address the full scope of what a financial institution requires.    

Many speculate that AI will solve the buy versus build dilemma and usher in a new paradigm where AI replaces traditional coding. With the potential of AI already proven in certain use cases, could we be on the cusp of a new age in software development?   

The answer is a nuanced yes. Yes, because the uses of artificial intelligence in capital markets are myriad. And yes, because the new tools available that capitalize on generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning are applicable throughout the tech stack. Nevertheless, financial firms are unlikely to turn over their code-writing freedom to a machine, at least not in the foreseeable future.    

Let us suppose that AI could write all the code needed for a sophisticated capital markets application. Without a proven framework, control and predictability for that code will likely be lost. AI coding on its own risks merely exacerbating the sprawl of code and technology that large financial institutions already struggle to manage. Moreover, proving that purely machine-made code meets strict audit, compliance, security and other standards would be a significant challenge.   

That said, AI can make life easier and more productive for software developers, even in these early days. The key is to incorporate AI into coding processes efficiently and reliably without adding extra tasks like increased code validation, review or other checks. 

Having a proven, trusted application platform like Genesis is one such conduit that delivers AI-driven in the highly predictable, auditable and compliant manner required by financial firms.   

The Genesis Application Platform   

The Genesis Application Platform is the only application development technology purpose-built for financial services and capital markets businesses. Our platform accelerates front- and back-end application creation, testing, deployment and maintenance across the software value chain, whether replacing manual processes, enhancing legacy systems, or building new, innovative applications.  

The framework that scaffolds the strength of Genesis for the time-crunched technologist is three-fold:   

1. The acceleration of application development with low code. 
2. Access to prebuilt business components designed for financial markets. 
3. Strategic use of AI technology to augment professional coding.   

Each factor alone represents a way to accelerate software development. Together, they are a unique, highly symbiotic toolset for developers in the financial industry.   

The heart of Genesis is a low-code language designed for the financial markets. It simplifies and accelerates application development with an accessible approach for developers of all skill levels. Importantly, Genesis offers a unique “hybrid” model by which the low-code toolset is leveraged within professional coding environments. This enables developers to benefit from the accelerative power of our platform and the ability to supplement it through their proprietary programming, all within their choice of IDE.  

The Genesis component library offers prebuilt modules crafted for the specific needs of software development in the financial markets, reducing the need to build every program from scratch.   

When AI augments our platform, it enhances how Genesis speeds up software development. But, it also operates within a proven, vetted, predictable framework that is readily acceptable to financial market firms. It enables less experienced developers to do work that would otherwise require specialty skills, thus boosting developer productivity in a financial firm.

Domain tailored AI coding tools   

The Genesis Application Platform offers an AI chatbot to deliver technical specifications to programmers, a coding copilot and a growing set of capabilities in our platform’s AI service layer. These represent just the beginning of how Genesis will harness AI. However, they are vital in advancing our mission to enhance the developer experience, improve productivity and facilitate faster application development.  

AskGenny  

AskGenny is the Genesis Application Platform’s technical chatbot. Trained on Genesis’ documentation, Genny addresses technical inquiries and responds with natural language responses similar to the capabilities of ChatGPT. Users can access the chatbot through our documentation portal.  

For example, Genny can respond to intricate requests. For instance. To create a consolidator that aggregates data from the trade table into the order table, Genny can provide the commands.

This example shows not only the sophistication of the chatbot but also the fundamental efficiency and elegance of the Genesis code framework. AskGenny puts the immediate resources of a Genesis Application Platform expert into the hands of every coder on our platform. There’s no need to look up information as Genny provides an answer almost instantly.

Genesis Copilot  

Genesis also boosts developer productivity with a custom-built copilot, which functions as an AI pair-programmer. This copilot excels at understanding developer intentions from code comments and provides helpful inline code suggestions and corrections. Even without comments, the copilot actively follows the developer’s coding trajectory in real time to provide suggestions rooted in best practices and proven code patterns. Our copilot is fine-tuned with a leading LLM, so its suggestions are accurate and operate securely on the Genesis or client infrastructure. Developers are supported in their coding by drawing from the extensive knowledge accrued from successful Genesis projects. 

The Genesis Application Platform AI services  

The power of AI in application development is demonstrated in project acceleration and the improved coder experience. However, AI offers Genesis users even more robust capabilities when taken a step further to deliver ready-to-use, AI-enhanced business components for incorporation into their applications. For example, the recent launch of the Genesis Primary Bond Issuance solution for asset managers. PBI includes an AI-driven data service that scans emails and direct messages for deal-related information, interprets this unstructured data and integrates them with other deal data sourced by the asset manager. In PBI, AI is uniquely suited to replace human tasks of screening email and chat, manually extracting relevant data and reconciling that information with data already in a firm’s deal management system. The automation delivered by the Genesis AI agent for bond deal data helps asset managers request deal allocations as quickly as possible.  

Prepackaging AI-driven componentry within the service layer of the Genesis Application Platform offers financial firms advanced functionality they can add to their applications without needing to master the intricacies of AI development, training and management.   

AI Is not the end of coding  

AI won’t replace the professional coder or professional code frameworks in the financial services industry. But it can enhance how developers use domain-specific platforms like Genesis, engineered to deliver unmatched efficiency and performance to coders. Given that nearly every major financial institution needs to migrate from manual processes, legacy systems and siloed technologies, developers should view AI not as the end of coding but as a fuel for proven application development engines designed to deliver the processing, integration, compliance and security required in financial markets.