ANY financial institution that does not actively use or serve AI-driven companies is "not doing modern banking," according to robotics scientist Arthur Mutambara, who declared that "AI is the economy, and the economy is AI."
Speaking at the Institute of Bankers of Zimbabwe (IOBZ) conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday, Mutambara laid out the staggering economic scale of artificial intelligence to drive his point home.
“AI is projected to contribute US$11 trillion to global GDP this year. With global GDP at US$110 trillion, that's 10% from one technology. That is serious money,” he said.
He specifically highlighted generative AI, which alone is contributing US$4 trillion—a figure larger than the GDP of the UK or France and one that eclipses Africa’s collective GDP of US$3,4 trillion.
“We are smaller than one type of AI,” Mutambara stated, dramatising the figures to underscore the urgency for Zimbabwe and the continent.
The primary driver of this impact, he repeated, is “productivity, productivity, productivity. AI is driving productivity per capita to staggering levels. It's a multiplier, an escalator.”
For the banking sector, Mutambara listed immediate applications including risk management, fraud detection, customer service, and credit scoring.
He warned that “no function in your sector will remain untouched by AI.”
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Addressing the contentious issue of jobs, Mutambara rejected the common saying, “You won't lose your job to AI, but to a person who uses AI.”
He countered, “It's like saying, 'You won't lose your job to a tractor, but to a farmer who uses a tractor.' When the tractor was invented, the nature of farming jobs changed forever.”
He presented a three-part impact: job destruction, job modification, and new job creation. The key, he said, is satisfying the "job equation," where “new jobs plus modified jobs must be much, much greater than the destroyed jobs.”
To achieve this, Mutambara called for a coordinated strategy at the national, regional, and continental levels.
He urged a shift in focus towards employability over tenure, stating, “Don't tell me, 'I have been at CBZ for 20 years, so you should keep me.' No, maybe you should go home because you are no longer employable.”
The former Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister linked individual success to collective African progress, stating, “You will never be respected as a Zimbabwean until Zimbabwe is successful as a country. More importantly, you will never be respected as an African until Africa is a superstar continent.”
He was speaking under the topic "Applications of artificial intelligence in banking and finance: The impact on jobs in the sector.”
The conference, themed "Navigating the Bank of the Future, Today," concludes on Saturday.
