Digital technologies including big data analytics, artificial intelligence, cloud, and APIs have already transformed customer-facing functions at financial institutions. Risk departments are now using these technologies to digitize the back office. The key takeaway from Celent's Model Risk Manager 2022 Awards is that many financial institutions are driving digital transformation in risk operations with next-generation technology—especially solutions powered by big data analytics and artificial intelligence and supported by cloud and APIs—being adopted across various risk functions.

The COVID-19 pandemic and another black swan event, the conflict in Ukraine, are requiring wide-ranging, enterprise-wide efforts in financial risk, operational risk, and anti-financial crime. The recent emphasis in risk functions on integrating risk silos, leveraging expanded and alternate data sets, and operationalizing AI are now helping risk teams respond to the immediate and follow-on effects of these crises.