Banks looking for innovative ways to improve their anti-money laundering (AML) checks and procedures could benefit from developments in artificial intelligence (AI).

That's according to recent research by financial services solutions provider Pelican, which focused specifically on how AI could help financial institutions with payment processing.

More than 120 payments professionals across 32 countries took part, nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of whom said AI solutions could offer the most significant benefits in the field of AML, sanctions screening and fraud prevention.

Almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of respondents said these technologies had significant potential for helping their organisations to tackle the current inefficiencies in their payment processing activities.

The research also indicated that AI is set to become an increasingly important concept in financial services over the coming years, even though there is still a lot of work for the sector to do before it is able to realise the potential of this technology.

Two-thirds (67 per cent) of finance professionals expected banks to significantly increase their adoption of AI to improve payments efficiency over the next two years. However, more than nine out of ten (92 per cent) said the industry needs to look beyond the excitement surrounding AI in consumer technology and develop a stronger understanding of its potential applications for payments.

Parth Desai, founder and chief executive of Pelican, said this research could provide a "wake-up call" to an industry that is still reliant on manual processes and legacy systems.

"The need to adopt smarter tools has never been more vital," he continued. "By using the latest cutting edge AI technology, financial services providers can innovate and significantly reduce time to market.

"At the same time, they can introduce context and human-like understanding to their payments and compliance processes. This reduces the need for manual intervention, allowing for precious resources to be redeployed."