6 Predictions for the Fin-tech of 2019
By 2020, they say, we are stepping into a world that we know very little about now. And 2019 promises to be closest to the gargantuan decadal shift that’s knocking our doors.
Change is a painful process. But what it leads to eventually is often gorgeous. Take, for example, the colossal shift that’s been happening to the world’s financial systems over years under the hood. Decentralization, growing lack of trust towards century-old legacy banking systems… dark knights outside the iconoclastic financial powerhouses finally calling the bluff on powerful traditional money institutes controlling our financial future — it’s all been happening. 2019 is when the caterpillars of change, finally start transforming into the butterfly glory. At Jubi, we are convinced that the next decade belongs to ‘fin-tech’ and the balance of power tilting towards this promise of the new — we could not be more excited.
“Change is the heartbeat of life”
Here’re 9 dominant trends that we think will define the 2019 of fin-tech — a yeat that will see bots and apps taking over financial services. Yes you heard it here, a future where no one walks into bank-branches anymore.
- Elimination of middle-men: When it comes to financial services, let’s get this straight — people fear people. Decades of mis selling, wrong advice, incentive-based product push, human biases … what all of that means is that the year has finally come for algorithms to take over the family-friend who peddles tax-saving and life insurance policies. 2019, we predict, will be the year of algorithms occupying the center-stage. From loans to advisory, and from insurance to investments. The only people who will survive are the ones who complement the power of algorithms
2. Digital for financial efficiency: Globally, Robo-advisors, P2P lending sites etc have already started demonstrating how digital products and full stack automation can streamline operations to the point that it starts showing as a percentage saving on your operating costs. This potentially allows fin-tech players to charge lesser interests/ service costs which, eventually, causes the viral-loop of use, re-use, social share, lower cost of customer acquisition etc.
Who doesn’t love buying cheaper?
For Fin-tech leaders and players of 2019, being able to showcase smart automation leading to financial efficiency, and an increase in competitive positioning will be the key. Large-scale customer adoption is here and real.2019 will see market leaders emerge in the fin-tech space as they win customers and share of wallet in tsunamis
3. Transparency: 2019 is the year to win the market with trust and transparency. Financial services has long suffered from complicated products, hidden rates, jargons meant to fool etc. The Dark Knights of Fin-tech will rise from making things simple and talking a language that customers understand. While new & more efficient product-structures will be created over time, the great rise of transparency means that, in 2019, mutual funds & SIPs will beat everything else hands down when it comes to investments, and in insurance & lending — the ability to simplify will make or break businesses. (Attention CEOs — start spending more time & learning from young interns as to what they expect the future of financial services to be, and how to them, it’s plain boring and too complicated today.)
4. Digital for risk-adjustments: There are some things that just don’t make sense. For e.g. why would a student who has a wonderful job after college and in the mood to finish his student loan quickly have to pay the same rate of interest as that of someone struggling to find a job, and hence uncertain of the financial future? 2019 of fin-tech is getting the data and the business guys together, and be able to build models that are better predictors of risk and reward. Fin-tech leaders will differentiate from the rest, in using tech to manage inherent risks of financial services business models (read: bad loans, uncertain cash flows etc.)
5. AI+ Human: The world’s changing from the need to build software to empower workforces to building a workforce layer around a core automation & AI strategy. And consumers find automation, bots etc. yummy btw— basically everything that takes them faster towards purposeful and meaningful interactions. In fact, at jubi.ai we already see >70% automation of customer interaction via some of our fin-tech bots. Fin-tech leadership of 2019 and beyond will be a lot about getting the “AI-first + aided by human” strategy right
6. Proactive Customer Systems: At jubi, our deep belief is that the future of businesses will be defined by customer experience & happiness. So much so that, no matter what the category is, every business will be a Customer Happiness business at its core. With the move towards Happiness-as-a-strategy (H-A-A-S), what it means is that proactivity will be the key adjective that has to define enterprises. Moving the entire business system towards Customer Happiness needs rewiring of products, people and core business processes — and fin-tech especially, with a regulated and undifferentiated environment, needs to crack the code of happiness faster than ever before. Remember, what the millennials(and the Gen-Zs) hate the most is waiting — and institution-wide, proactive Customer Happiness Sytems will differentiate the men from the boys when it comes to either making unicorns of the great Fin-tech opportunity of 2019 or nothing.
We could not be more excited to feel 2019 here, alive and kicking. May the winners of Fin-tech arise, and may technology-for-good move everyone closer to solid financial futures.
Here’s wishing all of you a very Happy New Year. Team #JubiAI
