AI and Blockchain Integration in Finance

The convergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology is reshaping the financial industry. AI enables intelligent data analysis, fraud detection, and automation, while blockchain ensures decentralized, secure, and transparent record-keeping. This paper explores the integration of AI and blockchain in financial applications, focusing on security, decentralization, smart contracts, and AI-driven consensus mechanisms. A review of 20+ scholarly sources from IEEE and ScienceDirect highlights opportunities, challenges, and future research directions. While the synergy between AI and blockchain presents promising applications in finance, regulatory hurdles, scalability issues, and computational overhead pose challenges. The study concludes that AI-blockchain integration has the potential to enhance financial services, improve efficiency, and establish new trust models, but requires careful implementation and governance.