SIMON THOMPSON
The financial services sector is grappling with a fundamental question: how do you deploy cutting-edge AI technology in one of the world’ s most regulated industries?
While LLMs promise significant operational improvements and new capabilities, banks and financial firms face complex challenges around compliance, explainability and risk management that don’ t exist in other sectors.
To explore these challenges, we spoke with three industry leaders: Simon Thompson at GFT; Richard Doherty at Publicis Sapient; and Richard Harmon at Red Hat. Their insights reveal practical approaches to deploying LLMs safely whilst maintaining regulatory compliance and managing the inherent risks of AI in critical financial processes.
SIMON THOMPSON
TITLE: HEAD OF AI, ML AND DATA SCIENCE
COMPANY: GFT INDUSTRY: TECHNOLOGY LOCATION: UK
Simon Thompson is a seasoned AI / ML leader with nearly 30 years of experience, delivering innovative solutions across capital markets, telecoms, insurance and manufacturing while orchestrating cross-functional teams to exceed expectations.
120 September 2025