ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COSTS AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

This study is an empirical study of Artificial Intelligence Costs and Corporate Performance of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted in the study. The population was made up of the twenty-five (25) DMBs in Nigeria and sample size of 14 was selected based on the criterion that only this number of banks were fully listed and actively traded with NSE from January o1, 2011 to the December 31, 2021; which means that their 2011 to 2021 annual reports are accessible. Purposively sampling technique was adopted in the study to select the fourteen (14) sampled banks. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics (multiple regression analysis). Results showed that Investment Costs in Artificial Intelligence Technologies – Robotic Technology (ATM costs being used as a proxy) has a significant negative influence on corporate
performance (ROE); intelligent financial supporting systems (Hardware and software/intangibles assets costs) and Bank Network and Apps/POS costs both have positive significant influence on corporate performance (ROE). It was concluded in the study that artificial intelligence has significant joint positive influence on corporate performance (profitability, ROE). It was recommended in the study among others that, the deposit money banks in Nigeria should invest more on improved and more advanced artificial
intelligence technologies such as POS, telebanking, internet banking, banking apps, card data, smartcard/electronic purse and other electronic banking technologies that is void of incessant fraudulent activities, bank network failure, power challenge, security issues especially in some remote areas among others. Banks should stop investing more on ATMs because of the operational costs burden on the banks’ profitability.