More and more financial services companies are promoting the benefits of artificial intelligence in improving productivity and overall operational efficiency.

Edward J. Achtner, head of artificial intelligence at the UK banking giant HSBC, said that despite bold statements made by many companies, tangible results have not been achieved.

"To be frank, there are many ways to define success," Achtner said in a panel discussion at the CogX Global Leadership Summit, where he was joined by Ranil Boteju, artificial intelligence leader at competitor Lloyds Banking, and Nathalie Oestmann, Head of Venture Capital Consultancy NV Ltd.

"We must be very careful in choosing what to do and where to do it," Achtner told participants at an event held earlier this week at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Achtner outlined how the 150-year-old lending institution has embraced artificial intelligence since November 2022, when ChatGPT (an AI chatbot launched by Microsoft-supported start-up OpenAI) emerged.

The AI lead at HSBC stated that the bank has over 550 AI-related use cases across its business lines and functional departments – from using machine learning tools to combat money laundering and fraud, to leveraging newer generative AI systems to support knowledge workers.

An example he cited is HSBC's partnership with internet search giant Google to use AI technology in combating money laundering and mitigating fraud. He mentioned that this collaboration has been ongoing for several years. Recently, the bank has also delved deeper into generative AI technology.

"When it comes to generative artificial intelligence, we really need to explicitly distinguish it from other types of artificial intelligence," Achtner said. "We do indeed handle potential risks in a very different way when it comes to generative aspects because while it represents incredible opportunities and productivity gains, it also represents different types of risks."

At the time Achtner made the above remarks, other individuals in the financial services industry - especially leaders of startups - have boldly stated that they see an overall increase in efficiency and cost reduction level brought by investing in artificial intelligence.

Klarna stated that it has been using artificial intelligence to compensate for productivity losses due to reduced workforce after employees leave the company.

CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski stated in August that the company is implementing a company-wide hiring freeze and, with the help of artificial intelligence, is reducing the total number of employees from 5,000 to 3,800, a reduction of about 24%. He is considering further reducing Klarna's total employees to 2,000, but has not specified a specific timeline to achieve this goal.

Klarna's boss stated that the company is reducing the total number of employees because artificial intelligence may have a 'huge impact' on employment and society.

"I think today's politicians should consider whether there are other effective ways of support," he said in an interview with the BBC, indicating that the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence will be offset by new job positions created by artificial intelligence, which would be 'too simplistic'.

NV Ltd is a London-based company that provides consulting services to executives of venture capital and private equity firms. Oestmann directly addressed Klarna's actions, stating that news related to this AI-driven layoffs was 'not helpful'.

She mentioned that Klarna might consider artificial intelligence 'making them a more valuable company', hence incorporating this technology as part of the layoff plan regardless.

A spokesperson for Klarna told CNBC that the results seen from artificial intelligence are 'very real'. The spokesperson added, 'We are disclosing these results because we want to honestly and transparently demonstrate the impact of genAI on the company in today's real world.'

"At the end of the day," Oestmann added, as long as people "receive proper training," banks and other financial service companies can "reshape" themselves in the new ai era, "it will help us to develop." She suggested that financial companies "continuously learn in everything they do."

"Make sure you are trying out these tools, make sure you incorporate them into your daily life, make sure you stay curious," she added.

Lloyds Banking's Chief Data and Analytics Officer Boteju identified three main use cases in AI that the lender has seen: automated back-end functions (such as coding and document engineering), 'man-machine interaction' applications (such as salesperson prompts), and AI-generated customer query responses.

Boteju stressed that Lloyds Banking is 'cautious' when presenting generated AI tools to banking clients. He added: 'We want to set up guardrails before actually starting to expand these tools.'

"Banks in particular have been using AI and machine learning to process data, and banks have been using AI and machine learning to process data."

"This has likely been going on for about 15 to 20 years," Boteju said, indicating that machine learning, intelligent automation, and chatbots are things that traditional lenders "have been doing for a while."

On the other hand, executives of Lloyds Banking stated that generative ai is an emerging technology. The bank is increasingly considering how to expand this technology— but through 'using our existing frameworks and infrastructure,' rather than pushing the development of this technology significantly.

Boteju and Achtner's comments align with previous statements from other financial services ai leaders. ING's Chief Analytics Officer Bahadir Yilmaz stated last week in an interview with CNBC that artificial intelligence is unlikely to be as disruptive as implied in public information by companies like Klarna.

"We see the same potential as them," Yilmaz said in an interview in London. "It's just that the tone of communication is a bit different." He added that ING mainly uses artificial intelligence in its global communication center and internal software engineering.

"We don't need to be seen as an ai-driven bank," Yilmaz said, adding that in many processes, even the credit side does not necessarily require ai to solve certain problems. "It is a very powerful tool. It is very disruptive. But we don't necessarily have to say that we use it as the seasoning for all food."

Johan Tjarnberg, CEO of Swedish online payment company Trustly, told CNBC earlier this week that artificial intelligence "is actually going to be one of the biggest technical levers in the payment space." However, he pointed out that the company is more focused on the "fundamentals of artificial intelligence" rather than transformative changes such as ai-driven customer service.

Trustly hopes to improve the customer experience through ai in an area such as subscriptions. The startup is developing an "intelligent billing mechanism" aimed at identifying the best time for banks to charge users based on their historical financial activities.

Tjarnberg further added that by implementing ai within the organization, Trustly's efficiency has increased by almost 5%-10%.