Empowering the Digital Bank: The connected Digital Finance of apps, agents and things…
With each wave of technology adoption the bar of assumptions that we can afford ourselves is raised, reinforcing the now familiar flip where consumers are the ones leading the charge for technology infused change. From simply just having a PC in every home, and then access to the internet, we can now take for granted a level of computing power and connectivity not only in the palm of the consumer but even weaved into the clothes and connected accessories they wear.
We are more connected and more quantified than ever before and yet this has not necessarily had the level of anticipated profound impact on either our lives as consumers or our understanding of our customers.
Beyond the app…
Surely there has to be more to digital engagement than an “app”? An “app for it” has moved beyond a notion and is fast becoming a reality, regardless of what “it” is, however the real challenge for consumers is finding that app, when and where they need it! Depending on the device and the ecosystem to hand, they are expected to weave through the initial discovery and engagement process and often inadvertently sign up for far more than they intended when clicking through to the functional benefits promised. Each app is a silo that knows a tiny bit about the consumer but isn’t connected to the rest of their context.
The holy grail of intelligent agents has promised consumers the chance to articulate needs instead of a way of meeting it, instead of finding the app, articulate intent and let ambient intelligence leverage holistic and contextual data to work out the best way to fulfill the need. However, this anticipation has to be done truly on the consumer’s behalf taking their best interests into consideration in a way that respects privacy and cultural boundaries. This is what will form the basis of more personal computing, something no longer bounded by any single device or silo of information but instead access to a personal agent dedicated to maximizing that most precious of assets – time.
Intelligent interactions
By applying this train of thought to their employees, organizations can suddenly start to plan ways of enhancing their own people’s capabilities with digital superpowers. When based on the context they are working in, and the customers they are engaging with, these types of powers become even more valuable, and perhaps even more personal, than simply launching another “app”. The intelligent agent doesn’t have to be me-centric, but can instead be a way of gaining insight into the world of my customer.
The Internet has always been a ‘thing of things’ and machine-to-machine communication a fundamental cornerstone of what everyone takes for granted today. So what has changed? The end-point no longer needs to be, or even should be, a human. Once the scale of internet connected devices explodes to reach the predicted billions of devices we simply won’t be able to consume the vast quantity of contextual data without an ambient intelligence driven by personalized intent.
What opportunities would be created if this infinite contextual data is harnessed in a way that understands and anticipates our needs? New business models for old industries will emerge, to support new ways of explicitly exchanging value between organizations, individuals and the brokers required to orchestrate this new model. In addition, it would facilitate new ways of providing meaningful personalization at scale. “Any color as long as it is black” will fall into the same category of bygone myths as the world being flat and at the centre of the Universe…
Empowering the Digital Bank
At Microsoft, we recently carried out research to determine what it’s like to be a banking customer today. To bring our findings to life, we have developed a video story to demonstrate some of the ways in which banks can play a much more active role in our financial decision-making processes and remain relevant in our connected digital lives. Our aim is to show you some of the opportunities available to banks to not only fulfill the service needs of their customers, but to develop their brand into an invaluable information service – a service that connects with customers in their daily activities and helps them navigate the milestones in their lives.
About Giri:
Giri is currently working in Microsoft’s Connected Digital Services team. Focused on delivering the cultural changes required to exploit market moving technology innovations, Giri works with leading organizations on conception, design and implementation of practical interactions, and shifts in ways of working that bring to bear new digital/physical products and insightful services. The focus is to challenge existing business models and modalities of engagement with a view to realizing tangible value from design-led transformation.
