Understanding complex and interdependent financial systems has long been the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The sheer volume of data involved, the administrative burden of maintaining and processing historical records and the high resources needed to exploit and make sense of an ever-growing lake data have all made this almost impossible…until now. As data science progresses and artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more intelligent, things are now starting to change. In particular, an increasing number of tasks are becoming automated, meaning they are now being completed much more quickly and much more accurately. Not only does this help reduce costs and make consumers happier, it also helps reduce risks, improve access to finance and detect fraud. As AI develops further, we can only expect that it will continue to impact the way the financial world operates.