Right or Wrong Banks Should Prepare For The Future of Banking Is Invisibility

This article in Bob’s Guide written by KPMG argues that banking will disappear as enlightened assistants begin to guide our lives, something you heard first without the hype in the Mercator report “A Digital Future Compels the Use of Technology to Automate Achieving Financial Goals”:

“By 2030, technology will drive a fundamental shift in banking. It can move from being hidden to completely invisible. This Invisible Bank will be buried within a broader, more digital, connected way of life. Consumers will interact with a personal digital assistant (perhaps the granddaughter of Cortana or the great-nephew of Siri). We’ve called ours EVA, Enlightened Virtual Assistant.” This is how KPMG envisions the future of banking and this will be driven by the evolution of artificial intelligence.”

Since I am of the old school, I associate my savings and checking accounts with my bank and while I will be happy when a vitrtual assistant helps me with protecting, saving, spending, and investing my money, I will always recognize and expect these services to be provided by my bank. As long as banks incrementally adapt these technologies and integrate to the AI tools that consumers gravitate towards, then the banks position in the market is secure.

As identified in Mercator’s report and re-stated in this article, banks will ultimately secure their position with consumers by delivering guidance:

“A couple of months ago, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that consumers are paying more to bank but are not benefiting from the financial services that are available to them.”

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and now Samsung are all investing in AI to engage the consumer and are uniquely positioned to gain interactive information from a broad range of consumers, which is necessary to train AI tools. Mercator’s report urges Banks to start pilot projects now to become more aware of what these technologies can achieve and to start deciding which AI tools appear to align best with your own initiatives.

Overview by Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation at Mercator Advisory Group

Read the full story here