AI is the Intelligent Choice

AI capabilities will be the key driver of success in banking, according to industry leaders. A global survey of 305 global banking executives, which was conducted during the Coronavirus crisis by The Economist Intelligence Unit for Temenos, found that 77% of senior banking executives surveyed believe that the success of financial institutions depends on their AI capabilities and will be the difference between the leaders and the followers.  46% agreed with the statement “unlocking value from AI will be the key differentiator between winning and losing banks.”  Banks that find a way to offer value in the form of AI to their customers will pave the way to success in a rapidly-evolving industry.  Here are some things you can do.

Transform Your Technologies

Adopting innovative technologies will help create interactive and engaging experiences for your customers, which is more important than ever now, during the pandemic.  The survey further revealed: 

• 66% of global respondents believe new technologies, such as AI, Cloud and DevOps will drive global banking in the next 5 years.  
• Additionally, 45% are committed to creating digital ecosystems to enhance the customer experience and therefore increase revenue streams.
• Almost half (46%) plan to transform their existing business models to include AI.

Create a Digital Ecosystem

It’s no longer enough for banks to operate within a traditional business model.  Customers expect more and banks need to deliver in order to be competitive, but they don’t have to be limited by their own products and services.  They can strive to create a digital ecosystem by offering products from their own organizations, as well as from third-party companies, which they can then pass on as significant value to their customers.

• 83% of respondents in the study agreed or strongly agreed that platformification of products would be a key future strategy.  This means both consumers and businesses would be able to acquire multiple financial services through a single source.

Pay Attention to the Top Trends

Acquisition of Artificial Intelligence and other machine learning ranks highest among the top trends identified in the survey.  When global and North American bankers were asked which trends they thought would impact their institution the most by 2025, they ranked them as follows:

1. New technologies, such as AI, machine learning, blockchain, loT and VAR (66% global and North America)
2. Regulation on digital technology (data protection, digital taxation, etc.), traditional bank capital regulation (42% global/56% North America)
3. Changing customer behavior and demands (24% global/17% North America)
4. Changing political and socio-economic environment (19% global/15.5% North America)
5. Changing competitive environment (15% global/13% North America)
6. Open banking (14% global/16% North America)

Personalize Your Service Offerings

Financial institutions should aim for hyper-personalization of services based on the needs and wants of their customers.  Customer-facing AI ranked as the second-greatest area of focus for technology investments, just slightly behind Cybersecurity, yet human contact is still important and essential.

Financial institutions can use AI to effectively identify their customers’ spending patterns and create a platform to solve common problems, such as overpaying for everyday services, such as phone, cable and internet.  Once those areas are identified, they can offer bill negotiating as a valued service to help reduce customers’ spending in a way customers wouldn’t be able to do as effectively on their own.  ApexEdge provides a menu of bill reduction services, including re-negotiation of existing bills, subscription cancellation and refund acquisition.  These are compelling services you can easily adopt to your business to be a competitive leader in your field.