business
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customers and trained staff experts who
may have limited availability.
Another example is HSBC’s proposed
robo-adviser, Online Investment Advice.
Built with customers who have moderate
incomes in mind, it will allow customers
to provide information on their financial
situation and their needs, and give
customers the best possible investment
options available to suit them.
AI could further be exploited to improve
customer experience, including using
emotional cognitive intelligence where a
‘bot’ could read a person’s facial expressions
and then act accordingly. Another future
use-case is part of Social Robotics which could
be used in branches to provide data on how
much time a customer spends looking at a
poster, which area of the poster their eyes
concentrated on and even their expressions as
they did so. All of this information can be used
to target customers more specifically.
One of the key challenges facing AI is
the cultural shift required. The transition
into telebanking and online banking, the
integration of AI into financial services and
institutions will require a similar shift in
mainstream thinking. How smoothly the next
transition evolves will depend on the decisions
and measures market leaders make now.
Humanisation of technology
While artificial intelligence offers tangible
benefits in data protection and customer
retention, the effect on and acceptance of
AI by banking staff and customers cannot
be overlooked. Education will be key to
the adoption of the powerful tool AI has
the potential to be. While mindful of the
business need to expand and adapt quickly,
the transition must be made with sensitivity,
transparency and honesty, which will allow
the reasons and value of implementing AI to
become clear to all.
Ultimately, financial services customers are
human and the services offered should not
just be a process to be followed, but involve
people as well. Adding AI to the equation
should result in better-equipped staff and
more satisfied customers, not in a robotic
interface devoid of human empathy. As AI
expands into banking, the propensity for
transformation increases, paving the way for
new opportunities and better services within
the industry.
44
INTELLIGENTCIO
The future of financial services
To a large extent, banking has traditionally
required customer initiation: the customer
approaches the bank for a loan; to open or
close an account; and to authorise payments
and investments. This reactive approach no
longer meets the needs of today’s customer.
For banks to revolutionise their methodology,
the data they collate on their customers,
accounts and transactions, will need to be
integrated with the world of intelligence, so
that services become not only proactive, but
relevant and personal.
Partnerships between financial institutions,
technology experts and FinTech start-ups
can be powerful when viewed through this
lens. A Kenyan start-up, First Choice Global,
has seen success with their SawaPay app, a
free service which allows customers to send
money and pay bills in Africa from the USA.
Harnessing the right expertise
to achieve a new level of
financial services
Throughout the thread of innovations and
technological advances runs the ever-present
awareness that progress in the financial
services industry becomes obsolete if it
cannot be made secure.
Cybersecurity will play a major role in the
future of banking. While customers want
transactions to be easy and systematic, the
last thing either the banks or their customers
want is to see the security of their data, or
their money, compromised in any way.
Regulation requirements such as PSD2 and
GDPR are driving innovation in security and
“
in due course, increase the trust customers
have in financial institutions. Securing data,
both tangible and in the cloud, becomes
paramount in maintaining that trust.
Access and authorisation methods are also
critical. Advances and innovations in the
health sector are starting to demonstrate
how a move beyond biometrics may be
possible by providing inspiration for subtle,
yet inscrutable identification strategies.
Among those being considered are
digestible or invisible markers, as well as
behavioural monitoring.
Combining technological and business
expertise and experience with up-to-date
knowledge of market trends, customer
experience teams are uniquely placed to
help both established financial institutions
and the burgeoning entries to FinTech take
the necessary steps to maintain relevance in
the changing market.
As AI changes, customer expectations of
how financial transactions should work, so
too will need to create secure, trustworthy
platforms and programs to enable those
transactions to appear seamless, taking
place in the background instead of requiring
several logins and authentications.
Digital transformation is the future of
financial services, as long as it remains
centred on the development and
implementation of new intelligence,
which focuses on optimising human
interactions and improving the accuracy of
authentication, as well as moving banks from
a reactive to a proactive model. n
CREATING A SPACE
WHERE TECHNOLOGY
CAN SEAMLESSLY INTEGRATE A
SUPERIOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
WITH INCREASED DATA SECURITY
REQUIRES NEW APPROACHES TO
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION.
www.intelligentcio.com