RBC Debuts Aiden, an AI Platform Capable of 32 Million Calculations Per Trade Order

Need to Know

• Aiden will use machine learning to provide better trading insights and results for RBC clients.
• The platform was developed in partnership with AI research center Borealis AI, which was created by RBC.
• Aiden can make more than 32 million calculations per order, and adjust to new information and live trading data.
• RBC says the market volatility resulting from COVID-19 has provided a powerful training opportunity for Aiden’s AI.

Analysis

RBC has launched a new tool, Aiden, that uses AI and machine learning to provide dynamic, real-time trading and market insights and results for RBC clients.

Aiden was jointly developed by RBC and Borealis AI, the AI research center created by RBC in 2016. In order to build the tool, traders and AI scientists combined their respective insights and knowledge to build a tool that can apply deep reinforcement learning to constantly changing trading environments. Aiden then communicates these learnings to clients in a way that is easily digestible, and therefore actionable.

The purpose of a platform like Aiden is to help navigate “fluid and dynamic market conditions” without the need for continuous updates and retooling. Aiden can make more than 32 million calculations per trade order, then execute decisions based on live market data.

“After several years of comprehensive research, testing and fine-tuning, we are proud to bring a new standard of execution excellence to clients,” Dr. Foteini Agrafioti, chief science officer at RBC and head of Borealis AI, said in a statement. “Together, we are continuing our exploration of deep reinforcement learning, while advancing the development of responsible AI for our clients.”

Bobby Grubert, co-head of global equities‎ for RBC Capital Markets, said that Aiden speaks to the bank’s “long-term commitment to leverage next-generation AI technology to create differentiated solutions for our clients.” Grubert added that the platform is “at the beginning of its journey,” and that there is great potential to expand its capabilities in the future.

Unlike traditional trading algorithms, Aiden is able to navigate shifting market conditions in real-time, without continuous manual re-coding. According to Shary Mudassir, RBC Capital Markets’s co-head of global equities execution, the development of Aiden benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic: volatile markets and a fast-changing economic environment resulted in an AI tool that is able to “recognize the sudden changes in the market and adapt to them, allowing it to preserve performance.”

The release of Aiden comes two weeks after Borealis AI announced the launch of RESPECT AI, an online hub that, using research, tutorials, and open-source code, aims to make ethical AI available to all. The launch of RESPECT came after a survey found that 93% of Canadians were unable to implement or engage with AI due to cost, time, or lack of understanding. RBC also announced in July that it had developed an AI cloud computing platform, also with Borealis, to help RBC model for customer service, fraud, risk, and financial advice.

The Aiden platform is currently available to RBC Capital Markets clients in the U.S. and Canada.