Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated headlines in recent years, with promises to transform everything from healthcare to customer service. For the range of financial market participants across capital markets, investment and treasury, however, the question is sharper: can AI genuinely solve real-world problems from hedging and trading, to alpha creation and risk management – or is it just another over-hyped technology?
Rahul Badhwar, global head of corporate sales, markets & securities services at HSBC, believes the answer is clear. “AI isn’t about gimmicks. It’s about efficiency and insight.”
From tactical to strategic: a new operating model
Adopting AI is not just about plugging in a new system. It also requires a shift in mindset for the organisations on this journey.
“The first step is cultural: recognising that AI can and should be part of the operating model,” Badhwar says. “Productivity has become the need of the hour, and AI allows people to be far more productive — being more time-efficient to produce higher-quality outputs.”
For corporates, this shift enables them to use HSBC AI Markets to access market intelligence rapidly for forecasting or developing hedging and trading strategies around FX and rates, for instance.
For institutions such as hedge funds, asset managers, sovereign wealth funds and insurance companies, HSBC AI Markets can provide market insights to help them to generate alpha and manage risk.
“In short, it’s about moving from the tactical to the strategic,” Badhwar notes. “Data and analytics tools can take care of the repetitive tasks, so decision-makers can devote more attention to scenario planning and big-picture thinking.”
A solutions-focused platform
HSBC launched its HSBC AI Markets platform initially for institutional clients. It has since extended it to the corporate community.
At its core, the platform is designed to serve clients’ needs – from analysis to execution and post-trade activities.
Whether this is for an institution in need of real-time liquidity insight and sophisticated analytics, or a corporate wanting sector research to inform hedging strategy, HSBC AI Markets taps into HSBC’s global expertise and unique market data.
This includes analysing data at greater speed and depth than ever before. It also enables quick comparisons and contrasts of historical data and live prices, analysis of liquidity and risk, and the ability to trade at lightning speed.
“Yes, you could go to 10 different data sources and manually piece together the same picture,” Badhwar acknowledges. “But HSBC AI Markets brings it all together in a consumable, intuitive format — analytics, insights and execution on a single platform.”
Targeting key challenges
For investors, HSBC AI Markets is designed to address a familiar problem: too much information, spread across too many screens, delivered too slowly to support fast-moving decisions.
The answer has been to combine HSBC’s proprietary market data, global trading colour and investment research with natural language processing and advanced analytics. Put simply, this allows users to interrogate markets conversationally and move seamlessly from analysis to execution.
For treasurers, who face challenges stemming from the accuracy of forecasting their FX exposures as supply chains shift and customer demand evolves, HSBC AI Markets offers a set of tools to assist clients in managing their FX budget rates more effectively. “That means they not only understand the numbers, but also the probability around whether those FX risks will actually crystallise in the next six to 12 months,” Badhwar explains.
HSBC AI Markets also helps treasurers to analyse large volumes of historical data — from FX to interest rates to macroeconomic variables — so they can make more informed hedging decisions. This includes determining effective hedge strategies and presenting the results in a way that senior management and auditors can easily understand.
Trust, transparency and rigorous governance
Across capital markets, investment and treasury, where mistakes can carry real financial and reputational costs, trust is paramount. Badhwar is clear that transparency is non-negotiable.
“Outputs must be consistent, traceable and clearly referenced to their data sources. If an auditor asks how a decision was made, the decision-makers should be able to show the step-by-step logic.”
HSBC applies rigorous governance to every process, including documentation, approvals and internal reviews. “It’s not just about building the best digital interface,” Badhwar stresses. “It’s about making sure solutions are audit-proof, regulatory-compliant and genuinely explainable.”
Taking the first step
For corporates and institutions looking to start their AI journey, Badhwar advises beginning with repetitive, data-intensive tasks. “The challenge today isn’t the lack of data — it’s how to analyse and consume it. Organisations should see how they can leverage AI to remove biases that come from focusing on short, anomalous periods, like the pandemic or tariff shocks.”
Equally important is leadership commitment. “More and more CEOs are saying AI proficiency is not a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ for their employees,” he notes. “Tone from the top is critical to driving adoption.”
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Disclaimer
HSBC AI Markets is for existing clients. The information contained in marketing materials is for demonstration only. The Bank is not responsible for any loss, damage, or other consequences of any kind that you may incur or suffer as a result of, arising from or relating to your use or reference of the information in this material. The information provided to you on HSBC AI Markets is intended only for professional sophisticated and/or eligible clients, investors or counterparties.
HSBC AI Markets allows users to access certain HSBC data using Natural Language Processing (‘NLP’) which provides the ability to interpret and comprehend human language. The NLP parser employed by HSBC AI Markets will attempt to match a user’s query to the appropriate answer based on the data available to it. Aspects of this NLP model use Machine Learning which is a subset of artificial intelligence using mathematical tools and algorithms to create a model that can be used to make predictions. HSBC AI Markets does not use Generative AI which builds on Machine Learning to take content in the form of text or other formats and generate new context as text or other formats. Information provided by HSBC AI Markets is indicative, its accuracy may vary and should be used for information purposes only.
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