As artificial intelligence reshapes the financial services industry, Darren Abel, Senior Director of Engineering at Apex Fintech Solutions, still believes it’s the person in the chair that matters most.
"As a fintech company, we always want to push the envelope and be at the front of everything," Darren says. That philosophy has turned Apex's Belfast office into an innovation hub for AI integration, where the focus is on empowering engineers with tools that accelerate delivery and unlock new possibilities.
Recently, AI ambassadors from Apex's US headquarters were in Belfast conducting intensive workshops. "We have teams over from the US who are our AI ambassadors and AI leaders and they're taking the team through varioustrainingcoursesaround generative AI"Darren says. It's part of a continuous learning programme that includes boot camps on AI fundamentals and hands-on sessions with specific tools.
The approach is deliberately proactive. "We take a really pre-emptive approach to roll out AI throughout the organisation," Darren says. "We are hosting workshops and boot camps on AI fundamentals with specific tools. The generative AI side of things is what everybody knows, more commonly now we're starting to see agentic AI in software."
These aren't one-off training sessions but are embedded components of Apex's culture. For example. the company runs Tech Days twice annually – these are week-long hackathons where innovation takes centre stage.
"We have themes around AI and automation in particular this year," Darren says. "And we have AI champions within different departments to really keep pushing things forward."
What distinguishes Apex's approach is how it combines leadership vision with grassroots innovation. "We listen to the employees as well observing what they're doing," Darren says. "We're trying to foster a culture of AI, as we take it from the bottom up and we see tools that people are talking about, and we can explore those as well."
"Our whole philosophy is to provide frictionless B2B solutions for our clients," Darren says. That mission drives the organisation's enthusiasm for AI whilst maintaining clear priorities about where human expertise matters most.
Darren is emphatic that the transformation happening in software development doesn't diminish the engineer's role but elevates it."The key thing is that the person in the chair is still the most important element," he says. "And I don't see that changing in the next few years."
In practical terms, this means AI handles the groundwork whilst engineers apply their expertise to complex architectural decisions and strategic problem-solving.From a software perspective, designing software and analysing software can be donemuch more rapidly and what might have previously taken months can often be completed in a matter of days, sometimes faster. This shift has fundamentally altered how engineers spend their time, moving them away from repetitive tasks and towards work that demands genuine insight and innovation. What remains constantis problem solving.
Nevertheless, the speed of change is tangible. Tasks that once consumed significant time and resources now happen faster, freeing engineers to focus on higher-level problem-solving. But the engineer's judgement, creativity and critical thinking remain irreplaceable. The technology enhances capability, according to Darren, it doesn't substitute for expertise.
Operating in financial services demands rigorous safeguards and given the unprecedented scale of hacking in recent times the stakes have never been higher. It's precisely these risks that make Apex's governance framework essential. Every AI tool must clear multiple hurdles before staff can use it, ensuring that the drive for innovation doesn't compromise security or regulatory compliance.
For Darren, "Security is paramount at Apex and ensuring that our customers' data is safe and secure is our main priority, so every new AI tool has to go through a very rigorous process before we will accept that into the organisation. And that's a fundamental foundation of our company culture."
Working closely with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and regulatory bodies, Apex balances innovation with compliance.
This careful approach hasn't slowed progress. On the contrary, it's enabled sustainable growth. "For us, the acceleration of the speed of delivery is very important". We try to provide frictionless solutions to our customers, so getting new solutions out there to the customers is really important and AI is helping to accelerate that, both in the development side and also the testing side and other parts in between."
The company has also been exploring opportunities to integrate AI directly into its products. “For example, as part of our Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, we’ve been experimenting with incorporating AI as part of our Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes,” says Darren.
Even as AI handles more routine tasks, Darren hasn't reduced investment in what makes engineers exceptional. "From our side of things, nothing has changed as we've always invested in people and the skills that people need in terms of critical thinking and emotional intelligence," he says.
The company uses DISC personality profiles to help staff understand different working styles and collaborate more effectively. The twice-yearly Tech Days hackathons focus not just on technical innovation but on creativity and teamwork. Staff are encouraged to speak at conferences and industry events, developing the communication skills that no algorithm can replicate.
"The softer skills are critical," Darren insists. "Without them, we're not a company."
It's an acknowledgement that as AI handles more routine tasks, the uniquely human capabilities such as judgement, creativity, emotional intelligence and ethical reasoningbecome more valuable, not less. The question isn't whether humans will remain relevant in an AI-augmented workplace, but rather which human skills will prove most essential.
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As the AI revolution continues to reshape the financial services sector, Apex's experience suggests a path forward that neither embraces technology uncritically nor resists it futilely. The company is moving fast, but with guardrails. It's automating aggressively but keeping humans in control. It's innovating constantly, but within a robust governance framework.
Looking forward, Darren sees tremendous potential in embracing new technologies and ways of working. The combination of AI acceleration, rigorous governance and continued investment in human talent positions Apex to deliver solutions faster and more effectively than ever before. The technology enables engineers to work at speeds previously impossible whilst the human expertise ensures quality, security and innovation.
The transformation Darren describes isn't about technology displacing people. It's about empowering exceptional engineers with exceptional tools. The AI simply helps them build tomorrow faster but human judgement, creativity and the ability to confidently spot when the AI is wrong remains indispensable. The person in the chair remains the most important.
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