This year’s first-quarter witnessed significant findings regarding Australian investors’ expectations about Artificial Intelligence technologies geared specifically for institutional financial services, Northern Trust revealed from its Chicago-area hub recently.

Information gleaned from investment managers and institutional investors at Northern Trust’s various first-quarter 2018 events in three Asian offices indicated that those surveyed demonstrated varied predictions and receptivity, primarily based on location.

“In Asia-Pacific we have seen regulatory changes either built within existing policy frameworks, or shifted, as the market landscape transforms,” Caroline Higgins, head of Global Fund Services for Asia at Northern Trust, said. “Amid the fast-evolving financial market ecosystem and the growing importance of technological innovation, collaboration … is vital to supporting the efficiency, security and transparency emerging technology can bring.”

In Australia, almost 60 percent of institutional investors and asset managers foresee AI’s implementation within two years. Those in Singapore and Hong Kong consider the probability to be more like two to five years.

Experts across the three locations were in slightly closer agreement regarding necessary changes, with 50 percent of Hong Kong respondents and approximately 40 percent of Singapore personnel stressing the need for greater clarification in the regulatory sphere before the industry could adapt to blockchain technology.

Additionally, half of Australian respondents considered engagement and cooperation critical to financial services’ embracing blockchain.

Danielle Henderson, Northern Trust’s head of Asia-Pacific market advocacy and innovation research, noted that progress might consist of machine learning capabilities, citing “faster and deeper data consumption, advanced analytics for better decision making and natural language generation for automated report commentary.”