The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is preparing to set in motion a plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) to combat insider trading and other transgressions by listed companies, curving clandestine activities and corporate crookery reports the .
JSE CEO, Leila Fourie says the stock exchange was “investing heavily in artificial intelligence” for a new regulation initiative. The AI systems are intended to mimic and detect certain human behaviours and thus could be used to detect irregularities around dealings and trades that are not caught by the financial indicators in place.
Fourie explained to the Business Times that the AI would allow the JSE to perform “social listening,” which means the entity will receive “early warning indicators on where there is dissent, concerns, or comments that are made which trigger a need to do early investigations in potential corporate issues”.
Digital Transformation
According to My Broadband, the JSE is also in the works to consolidate numerous information sources into a cloud-based solution. This new advent into digital transformation will allow the development of a quick-access tool, similar to Google’s search engine, which will allow each division of the JSE to search all the aggregate data in real-time.
“The development will later allow for the aggregation of external sources of information as well, such as social media, news feeds, and legal proceedings which involve listed companies,” Fourie says.
The further transformation includes the combination of machine-learning algorithms with newly-created business intelligence rules, which should also see the JSE able to determine the “health status” of a listed company at any given time.
AI in Africa
The primary use of AI in South Africa is for automation and prediction, says COO of Lenovo Gianfranco Lanci, who also says that these sectors would only increase and broaden to other use-cases.
Lanci, however, cautions to be wary of any privacy infractions by those who would employ AI.
“Companies, however, will need to become more cognizant of individual’s right to privacy, and decide how to handle all that data they collect, as they increase their efforts to incorporate AI and ML into their business and products to streamline operations,” he says.
In other African countries, AI is being used in a myriad of interesting and unique ways to better the lives of Africans.
In Nigeria and Kenya, AI is used to mitigate the risk of lending credit through AI analysis of potential customers, it is also used in Agritech to increase yield and decrease productions times through machine learning and geographic information sensing.
In E-Commerce, startups from Kenya and Nigeria offer consumers new ways to try out products for purchase and easier ways to find the things they want to wear, respectively.
