Wednesday webinar at one AI and the new face of risk opportunities and threats

Wednesday 08 July 2026 | 13:00 - 14:00 | Webinar

Artificial intelligence is reshaping what risk means for financial institutions and how it must be managed.

Join Professor Alastair Irons, Academic Lead for Computing at The Walbrook Institute as he explores AI's growing power to generate predictions in financial markets, the point at which that power starts to feel like science fiction, and the risks that come with relying on it.  

Professor Irons will also examine how AI is transforming the landscape of external threats: the same technology that adversaries use to attack institutions can be turned around to strengthen their defences. Throughout, we will consider why understanding and embracing AI is no longer optional for CFA professionals, but an essential part of modern professional practice. 

Learning outcomes: 

• Evaluate the opportunities and risks of using AI for prediction in financial markets and recognise where its limits lie. 
• Explain how AI is changing the nature of risk and the practice of risk management within financial institutions 
• Assess how AI reshapes external threats and how institutions can deploy it defensively to protect themselves. 

The webinar is is aimed at members who want to understand why being AI proficient isn’t optional anymore and how and where they can deploy it.

Speaker:

Professor Alastair Irons, Academic Lead for Computing, The Walbrook Institute  

Professor Alastair Irons has recently joined The Walbrook Institute as Academic Lead for Computing. He is Emeritus Professor of Computer Science and former Deputy Principal and Deputy Vice Chancellor at Abertay University in Scotland. Before joining Abertay in July 2022 he was Academic Director for Digital Education at the University of Sunderland, having previously been the Dean for the Faculty of Technology. Prior to joining the University of Sunderland in 2008 he worked at ONE North East, Northumbria University and ICI. Alastair became a National Teaching Fellow in 2010. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Cape Town in South Africa from 2013 – 2017 and is a visiting professor at the University of Johannesburg, at the British University in Egypt and at the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean.  
 
Alastair served as Vice President (academic) of the BCS and chair of the BCS Academy board from 2020 to 2026. He is a founding trustee of the BCS Foundation and continues to work with that group. Currently he is the UK representative on the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and serves on the IFIP Board (General Assembly). Recently he has taken up a non-executive role on the board of Dumfries and Galloway College and is chair of the Board of Governors at the Percy Hedley Foundation in Newcastle.