Bermuda’s financial and legal professionals were told to get ahead of artificial intelligence or risk falling behind global competitors.

Kyla Bolden, an AI leader with deep ties to Bermuda, delivered the call to action during the Society for Trust and Estate Practitioners Bermuda Conference 2025, held at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on Friday.

“AI is going to shape industries, including our own. They’re going to change jobs, enhance them, and in some cases, may replace them,” Ms Bolden warned.

She emphasised that Bermuda’s regulated firms must act now. “I want AI to be something that is not scary but also not ignored when it comes to your industry.”

Ms Bolden, the founder and chief executive of Wiz Learning, highlighted Bermuda’s unique regulatory pace: the financial services industry “can’t be as quick to adopt these really exciting, fancy AI tools than somebody who’s in the tech or education industry, because there’s a lot less room for error.”

Nevertheless, she urged firms to seize the advantages of AI-trained, in-house “smart companions” for safer, client-centric innovation: “These AI systems that we’re building are trained on your own specific knowledge, your own specific standard operating procedures, the rules and regulations that you want to pull from.”

Acknowledging industry anxieties, Ms Bolden reassured: “The humans will still lead, right? You don’t have to worry about robots taking over the world. But AI is really going to help amplify what you guys can do, help speed up your processes a lot more.”

Her message to Bermuda: “It’s important for you guys to get ahead of it. Those who know how to use AI responsibly and strategically will really replace those who don’t”.