What is Horizontal AI?
Horizontal AI (artificial intelligence), often called generic AI, is an AI system designed to perform broadly across multiple domains instead of being specialised for a single area, such as vertical AI. When you’re trying to conjure horizontal AI systems in your mind, think of GPT or DeepMind, which utilise machine learning and large language models to recreate human-like learning capabilities.
These techniques power most modern AI agents by enabling them to learn patterns from data rather than relying on rules-based programming. Horizontal AI excels in areas like computer vision, speech recognition, autonomous planning, game-playing and natural language processing (NLP).
With massive training data and computing power, horizontal AI systems can master several skills to a superhuman degree. As research continues toward advanced general problem-solving in machines, horizontal AI promises to broaden the scope and impact of artificial intelligence across industries and applications.
Horizontal AI in financial services
Financial services firms often start with horizontal AI tools for general productivity, then find they fall short on sector-specific tasks such as reading a compliance framework or recognising regulated terminology. That is why many firms combine general-purpose tools with models adapted to financial services.