Government agency Innovate UK has awarded a £1m grant to a consortium of universities and fintechs to accelerate the adoption of AI in the finance sector.

The funding aims to support the development of safe AI solutions to address challenges in the investment management space.

Innovate UK launched a competition for businesses in March to apply for grant funding for a series of feasibility studies for novel AI solutions.

The government sees AI as a major opportunity for the UK to maintain its leadership in finance, however, the technology comes with its share of risks such as ‘hallucinating’ false information and demonstrating bias.

The leading member of the consortium, London-based personalised investment strategy firm Stratiphy, said it would use the funding to focus efforts on bringing “cutting-edge AI” into its solutions. The group said it would also expand its team with additional AI specialists.

“We are thrilled to lead this consortium to deliver innovative AI technologies that offer high-value financial solutions,” said Daniel Gold, CEO of Stratiphy.

“We have been joined by companies that are not only business leaders in their respective fields of wealth planning, pensions and structured credit, but also want to be at the cutting edge of innovation.”

The consortium also includes the University of Bristol, the University of Birmingham, Chenavari Investment Managers, Smart Pension and Aventur Wealth.