Top on the minds of our members on Tuesday (14 Jan 2020)’s lunch forum was how to incorporate alternative data & AI into the investment process especially for investors trained in traditional fundamental analysis. This was one of the many questions raised via Pigeonhole by our members to Dr Guan Seng Khoo, Value3 Advisory and Andrew Koh who presented on “AI/ Machine Learning (ML) Applications in Investment Management” and “Role of AI & ML in China Financial Institutions” respectively. The session ended with a Q&A panel, moderated by our CFA member, Pearlyn Chiang.

We checked in with Pearlyn about her thoughts on the forum – “Dr Khoo Guan Seng was invited as the key speaker because of his unusual combination of technical expertise and business experience and knowledge. And he did not disappoint in his dissection of what and how data analysis in the age of AI and Machine Learning works. Similarly, Andrew Koh was working in the Chinese banking industry when they first started exploring AI. Given the Chinese banks’ pioneering efforts in AI, the perspective is an interesting and different one from the usual Western narrative,”

Kanol Pal, our Board member and CFA member also enjoyed the talks thoroughly – “I really enjoyed the event! Dr Guan Seng Khoo has demystified the AI/ML topic by providing a lot of practical examples. Related to my field of work, I was interested in his views on the use of alternative data for ESG Analysis.”