FUTURE OF FINTECH - KEYNOTE (FINANCIAL BRAND FORUM - 2022)
Summary
TLDRJeremy Cueno, Director at Jumo, discusses the future of fintech in a post-pandemic world, emphasizing Africa's leapfrogging in mobile tech despite infrastructural gaps. He explores the acceleration of digital transformation, the rebundling of financial services for customer convenience, and the rise of 'fintech as a service'. Cueno also delves into emerging technologies like Web 3.0, DAOs, AI, digital twins, and the metaverse, predicting their impact on financial services. He concludes by highlighting the importance of a customer-centric approach and preparing the workforce for an AI-driven future.
Takeaways
- 🌏 Jeremy Cueno, the Forum Country Operations Director at Jumo, speaks from Ghana, highlighting the rapid tech adoption in Africa due to fewer legacy systems and less to lose.
- 📱 The mobile revolution in Africa has provided more access to mobile phones than basic amenities like toilets or water, indicating a significant leapfrog in technology.
- 🔮 Looking at the past can inform the future of fintech; the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic both accelerated digital transformation in financial services.
- 💡 Technology is an enabler, not the end goal, with the focus being on customer-centric strategies that provide value and convenience.
- 🚀 The pace of disruption is accelerating, with innovations achieving mass adoption much faster than in the past, as illustrated by the rapid success of apps like Pokemon Go.
- 👨💼 The future of fintech may involve a rebundling of financial services into super apps like WeChat, offering a comprehensive suite of services for convenience.
- 🌐 Fintech as a Service (FaaS) is emerging, similar to AWS in tech, providing a suite of fintech services through a single API to facilitate global scaling.
- 🌟 Web 3.0 represents the next generation of the internet with technologies like edge computing, the semantic web, and blockchain aiming to create a more intelligent and interconnected web.
- 🤖 Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly important in financial services, with applications ranging from chatbots to digital twins, which are AI-powered replicas of physical entities.
- 🌐 The metaverse, an extension of reality including VR, AR, and MR, presents new opportunities for financial services in a digital world where virtual assets and currencies are common.
- 🔧 Preparing for the future workforce involves pivoting around AI, upskilling staff, and creating roles that align with the new skills needed for a digitally-driven work environment.
Q & A
What is Jeremy Cueno's current position and where is he located?
-Jeremy Cueno is the Country Operations Director at Jumo, a fintech company, and he is located in West Africa, specifically in Ghana.
How many territories does Jumo have a presence in across Africa?
-Jumo is present in six territories across Africa, starting from South Africa to East Africa and including Ghana.
What is the main topic Jeremy Cueno will discuss during his presentation?
-Jeremy Cueno will discuss the future of fintech in a post-pandemic world, focusing on technological disruption and its implications.
What does Jeremy mean by 'leapfrogging technology' in the context of Africa?
-Leapfrogging technology refers to the phenomenon where African countries adopt newer technologies without having to go through the older stages of technological development, due to having less legacy infrastructure to maintain or replace.
What is the significance of the mobile revolution in Africa according to the transcript?
-The mobile revolution in Africa has resulted in more people having access to mobile phones than basic amenities like toilets or water, indicating a significant shift towards digital solutions and a potential for rapid technological adoption.
What is the 'rebundling' of financial services and why is it happening?
-Rebundling refers to the process of combining various financial services into a single platform or service to save time, money, and provide convenience to customers. It is happening as a response to the fragmented customer experience caused by the unbundling of financial services by fintechs.
What is 'Fintech as a Service' and how does it help businesses scale globally?
-Fintech as a Service (FaaS) is a model where fintech services are provided to businesses through APIs and integrations, similar to how AWS provides cloud services. It helps businesses scale globally by handling operational fintech expansion issues, allowing businesses to focus on their core operations without worrying about local regulations or setting up local entities.
What is the potential impact of Web 3.0 on the financial services industry?
-Web 3.0, with its bundle of technologies like blockchain, AI, and 3D graphics, is expected to usher in a more intelligent and immersive internet experience. In financial services, it could lead to innovations like decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which could offer transparency, security, and efficiency in financial transactions.
What is a 'Digital Twin' in the context of AI and financial services?
-A Digital Twin is a digital replica of a physical product, process, or service. In the context of AI and financial services, a digital human or digital colleague is a human-like AI-powered character designed for interaction with people, potentially offering personalized services and a human touch in digital experiences.
How does Jeremy Cueno envision the metaverse impacting the future of financial services?
-Jeremy Cueno envisions the metaverse as a continuation of the trend towards digital and virtual interactions in financial services. It could enable new ways of customer engagement, staff training, and the management of virtual assets and currencies, requiring financial institutions to adapt and create strategies for this new environment.
What is the recommended approach for businesses to prepare for the future of AI and technology as discussed in the script?
-The recommended approach includes executing pilot projects to test AI applications, building an in-house AI team, providing broad AI training to existing staff, developing an AI strategy aligned with organizational goals, and over-communicating these initiatives to gain senior leadership buy-in.
Outlines
🌏 Introduction to Jeremy and the African Fintech Perspective
Jeremy Cueno, the Forum Country Operations Director at Jumo, begins the discussion from Ghana, West Africa. He highlights Jumo's fintech presence across six African territories, emphasizing Africa's propensity to leapfrog technology due to fewer legacy systems. Jeremy suggests that the continent's experience with mobile technology, despite lacking basic amenities, positions it to embrace future fintech disruptions. He sets the stage for a talk on the future of fintech post-pandemic, referencing Brett King's advice on futurism and the importance of learning from the past to predict the future.
🔮 The Future of Fintech and the Pace of Disruption
Jeremy discusses the acceleration of digital transformation in the financial sector, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, which acted as a catalyst for change. He uses the 'time traveler's dilemma' analogy to illustrate the difficulty of predicting future technologies and their impact, such as cybercrime and the internet's role in business. The talk emphasizes the rapid pace of innovation and the need for businesses to adapt quickly to remain relevant, with examples of how new technologies can achieve mass adoption in record time.
🤖 Envisioning 2042: A Day in the Life with Digital Twins
The script presents a futuristic scenario set in 2042, where a person's day is managed by a 'digital twin'—a digital replica that handles transactions, meetings, and even health appointments. This vision includes interactions with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smart contracts, and integrated financial services, suggesting a reality where digital and human interactions are seamlessly blended. The audience is left to consider whether this is a plausible future and what it means for the financial industry.
🔄 Rebundling and the Evolution of Financial Services
Jeremy explores the concept of 'rebundling' in financial services, where the fragmented customer experience due to multiple fintech apps leads to a consolidation of services for convenience. He draws parallels with WeChat's 'super app' model in China, predicting a global shift towards integrated financial ecosystems. The talk also introduces 'fintech as a service' (FTaaS), comparing it to Amazon Web Services, as a means for businesses to scale efficiently by leveraging technology platforms.
🌐 Web 3.0 and the Next Generation of Internet Technologies
The discussion shifts to Web 3.0, portrayed as a suite of technologies promising a more intelligent and immersive internet experience. Jeremy outlines the evolution from Web 1.0 to 2.0, leading to Web 3.0, which incorporates edge computing, the semantic web, blockchain, AI, and 3D graphics. He highlights the potential of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) within this ecosystem, emphasizing their ability to operate transparently and efficiently without centralized control.
🤖 Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Transformation of Finance
Jeremy delves into the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in fintech, from chatbots and personalized wealth management insights to fraud detection. He introduces the concept of 'digital twins' in the financial sector, which are AI-powered replicas of physical entities, processes, or services. The potential of digital humans or colleagues is showcased, offering a blend of digital interaction with a human touch, suggesting a future where AI enhances customer service and experience.
🌐 The Metaverse: Redefining Digital Interaction and Financial Services
The script discusses the metaverse as the next frontier of the internet, encompassing extended reality technologies like VR, AR, and MR. Jeremy explains how these technologies can transform customer interactions and financial services, enabling immersive experiences and new ways to engage with digital assets and currencies. The metaverse is presented as an opportunity for financial institutions to innovate and adapt to a virtual economy, with examples of banks exploring these spaces.
🏢 The Workforce of the Future: Bridging Physical and Digital Realms
Jeremy concludes with a vision of the future workforce, shaped by AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies. He suggests a shift from workforce planning to work planning, focusing on the skills required for a hybrid physical-digital work environment. The talk emphasizes the importance of upskilling, leveraging AI, and designing roles that align with future work models. The message is to prepare for a future where work is reimagined through the lens of evolving consumer expectations and technological advancements.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fintech
💡Digital Disruption
💡Mobile Revolution
💡Legacy Systems
💡Customer-Centric
💡Rebundling
💡Fintech as a Service (FaaS)
💡Web 3.0
💡Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
💡Digital Twin
💡Metaverse
Highlights
Jeremy Cueno discusses the future of fintech in a post-pandemic world, emphasizing the importance of embracing technological disruption.
Africa's leapfrogging in technology adoption, especially in mobile, has left more people with access to mobile phones than basic amenities.
The pandemic accelerated digital transformation in financial institutions by as much as seven years, according to Ahmed Kinsey.
Cueno highlights the shift from incumbent financial institutions to fintechs and cryptocurrencies due to the 2008 financial crisis.
The concept of 'rebundling' in financial services is introduced, aiming to provide a holistic customer experience.
WeChat is cited as an example of a 'super app' that bundles various financial services, setting a trend for the industry.
Cueno explains 'fintech as a service', drawing a parallel with Amazon's AWS, which simplifies scaling and global expansion.
The potential of Web 3.0 to create a more intelligent and immersive internet experience is explored.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are presented as a new form of entity governed by smart contracts on blockchain.
The role of artificial intelligence in financial services is discussed, with a focus on improving customer service and fraud detection.
Digital twins, or digital humans, are introduced as the next evolution in customer interaction, blending digital experiences with a human touch.
The metaverse is described as the next frontier in digital engagement, with potential applications in banking and asset management.
Cueno suggests that financial institutions should form a metaverse strategy to prepare for the shift towards virtual customer interactions.
The future workforce is envisioned to be a blend of physical and digital, with AI and machine learning playing a central role.
A quote from Amanda Gorman is used to inspire a move towards what's next, rather than returning to the old normal.
Transcripts
please welcome to the financial brand
Forum country operations director at
jumo Mr Jeremy cueno
[Music]
[Applause]
hello everyone
let's try it again hello everyone
awesome
so as mentioned my name is Jeremy and
I'm joining you from the lovely
continent of Africa specifically West
Africa Ghana
now I work for one of the largest
fintech Zumo jumo is present in six
territories across the continent
starting from South Africa all the way
to East Africa back to my home country
Ghana now I had a running joke with a
friend today that
it almost sounds counter-intuitive that
the organizers of the show
Jeffrey Amanda would reach out to
someone in the developing third world to
come all the way to the first world to
tell them about their future right
but then again Africa does have the
tendency to leapfro technology so the
mobile Revolution that has hit the
continent has left more Africans having
access to mobile phones than basic
amenities like toilets or water
so I believe that we're we're more open
to change we Embrace technology more
openly quite simply because we have a
lot less Legacy and a lot less to lose
so that's just to say that despite our
differing levels of economic development
we're all on this journey of
technological disruption together so
over the course of the next 40 to 45
minutes I'm going to do my best with to
share with you what we should all expect
from the future of fintech in a
post-pandemic world Beyond disruption if
that's okay with you let's jump straight
into it
all right now every time we try to
project out into the future I'm reminded
of something that the renowned author
Brett King says he said in order to be a
good futurist you need to be a good
pastist and what he means is what you
try to do is not only look at what's
going to happen in the future but you
tend to look up for analogies of what
might happen based on what's happened in
the past right they say history tends to
repeat itself the only caveat is each
time it does repeat itself it gets more
expensive so if you look back at what's
happened in the field of financial
services historically going back to the
2008 financial crisis that caused that
increased distrust in the incumbent
financial institutions that left the
door wide open for fintechs and
cryptocurrencies to manifest and more
recently with the covid-19 pandemic you
tend to see that the world is digitizing
Right which is why the word fintech has
become such a Mainstay and also why the
word disruption has become such a
buzzword in recent times so we're
digitizing because we want more
immediate DSE we want more ubiquity we
want less friction we want access to
channels of Commerce that can scale
right so there's over 400 Technologies
right now that in some ways shape or
form are set to or are predicted to
impact an industry or several Industries
including the financial services
industry but the best way to fail is to
fall victim to the fear of missing out
so chasing after every single emergence
emerging technology that is touted to be
the disrupter of the industry right if
you look at what happened with the
covid-19 pandemic now according to our
friends Ahmed Kinsey the pandemic
accelerated the digital transformation
journeys of a number of Institutions by
as much as seven years now what that
tells us is that although the strategy
and intention to serve customers in a
way that is more user-friendly more
customer-centric already existed it took
the pandemic and lockdowns to get get
them to refocus and reprioritize the
specific technologies that would enable
those outcomes because ultimately that's
what technology is it's the enabler not
the goal the goal is to reach your
customer where they are and provide them
as much value as possible and the
strategy is to adopt a more
customer-centric way of thinking so that
you're able to transform at the core
rather than at the fringes
so if you look back all throughout
history you see that there's been
technologies that have come in and were
either written off initially and then
became the Bedrock on which our
financial services industry was built
internet being the best example so let's
use an analogy that I really like from
Matt Griffin that he calls the time
travelers dilemma right so let's take
for a second or just imagine for a
second that you from the year 2022 was
able to travel in time back to the year
1980.
you transform or you teleport into a
room such as this with people from the
industry you try to give them a sense of
what to expect in 2022 so you say hey
guys you need to be ready for 2022
because for instance something like
cyber crime is going to be the fastest
form of criminal activity that has the
potential to impact your business or
industry and so you need to start
recruiting cyber Security Experts data
scientists software developers now all
of these roles we know to be true
because we actively recruit for them now
and they're in demand what do you think
the response of the room would be
well I think
that if they didn't immediately call you
crazy and they gave you the benefit of
the doubt they might ask you a question
like well what is cyber security
and you might say something along the
lines of cyber security is a way to
safeguard your online business from
nefarious people trying to steal from
you in creative ways on the internet
again
after a few a few weird looks they might
ask you well what is the internet
and you might say something like the
internet is a Global Network of
interconnected computers that allows the
free flow of information allows people
to engage and transact and has become
the very Bedrock on which our businesses
and Society is built now mind you 1980
was just 40 years ago
and the internet became mainstream
around 1992. so trying to explain to a
group of people who are pre-internet
babies what the internet is much less
going on to things that are based on the
internet like self-driving cars and
smart wearables would simply fly over
their heads right so at that point was
most likely going to happen is you might
either just be thrown out of the room if
not put in a straight jacket in a padded
room
so I think today or at least today we
can be a little bit more open-minded
because we've seen firsthand how rapid
the evolution of Technology actually is
and despite the fact that Innovation is
usually launched in this very basic
state with each iteration all the gaps
that exist are filled to the points
where millions of people are able to
integrate them into their daily lives so
quite simply the point there is that
disruption is getting faster now this is
a popular graphic that depicts this fact
so we've come from a point of view or a
place in time where innovations that
actually change the course of human
history like airplanes automobiles
telephone used to take as much as many
as 50 years 60 years to gain the kind of
mass adoption that is required and now
we're at the point where Innovations
like the Pokemon go take those 19 days
recently or most recently games like
Call of Duty were able to achieve 100
million downloads in its first this week
so the point is that the timelines for
customer acquisition have shrunk
disruption is getting faster and more so
it's actually accelerating
okay now let's take a look at
we've looked
back in time let's try and project
outward into the future as well so once
again let's let's imagine right so let's
imagine now is the year 2042.
the same date 16th November 15th
November I remember I forget what date
today is but
you're in bed and you're smart
your smart sensor buzzes against your
cerebrum to wake you up
now as you wake up
an optical projection of your
transactions is projected onto your
field of view so you can see all the
transactions from the previous day and
from what You observe
your portfolio performed higher than the
index because of or because it was
boosted by your new IPS your nfts your
smart contracts now in the same
transaction field or information feed
you're able to see that you have 81
meeting scheduled for today but only
three of which actually need your
attention
you have a digital doctor's appointment
at 10 o'clock and the results of that
annual checkup will be shared with your
Bankers or credit union or insurers for
an underwriting review
now you can also tell that the last
meeting of the day is going to be with
your digital banker and you need to be
ready for that one because you could
potentially secure that home loan to get
that dream house that you wanted thanks
to the enhanced performance of your
digital twin now you ask your digital
twin as you get in the shower what the
performance or what the transactions
were like last night and they inform you
that there were a total of 36
transactions making up thirty six
thousand dollars seventy percent of
which were performed or processed with
other digital twins 20 with digital
humans and only 10 with with actual
people now that you have your updates
you can go have your shower go walk your
kids on the beach because your digital
twin is going to take over
now what do you guys think is this
scenario
facts or fiction
is this an actual reality that could be
or not
okay so this particular scenario was
taken from John Blake's book digital
twin and the reality is that uh the
picture of the page of the future that
has been painted may never actually
materialize
but what if it did
what if
we're going into a world where what the
customer wanted or the experience that
the customer demanded took precedence
over anything including the technology
that would deliver it and your industry
or your business was simply not ready
what would be the consequences to your
business right so I think the whole
point is to be a little bit more
open-minded and it's embodied in this
quote that we have to be curious first
and not judgmental nobody can actually
predict the future but if you have a
mindset of rigidity it becomes very
difficult to see that far out okay now
let's look at one of the things that are
happening right now that we can tell is
going to bring the inevitable future
right so we're coming from a point of
view where
Financial Services were offered by the
incumbent financial institutions Banks
as a bundled service offering for the
the customer right and then fintechs
came in and tried to
try to how do you say came and
in the name of democratization and
decentralization the unbundled financial
services in doing so they were able to
set new standards of customer service
they were able to bring about benefits
like mobile first experiences and they
actually spurred competition in the
industry which ultimately benefited the
end user
but as a result of that what we now have
is a bit of a fragmented customer
experience so now customers have
multiple different apps applications
programs platforms that they need to go
to to access the same kind of financial
services now even though they are better
they're more enhanced over time it
becomes difficult to manage and so
what's inevitably going to happen is
we're going to revert to where we came
from and there's going to be what is
called a rebundling so rebundling
essentially entails that all the entire
Suite of financial services that a
consumer needs to manage their lives
needs to manage their finances are going
to be put in a specific place or bundled
in a specific place in order to or with
the aim to save time save money and give
convenience to the customer and this is
as much as it sounds like we tracing
your steps it's actually in line with
what the customer demands already it's
rather putting yourself in the shoes of
the customer seeing the World Through
The Eyes of your customer and working
backwards towards the technology so
again the second technology doesn't take
precedence right and this is actually
happening in China and spreading to
other parts of the world so WeChat for
example is the definitive super app Neo
super app in China with which consumers
are able to book a taxi send messages
make purchases inquire about financial
products or services so rebundling is in
line with what the customer wants and
it's more about being able to identify
the customer's needs and pain points and
reach out to them and provide them
solutions that give them a where they
are and give them a wholesome experience
right now that is also a good segue into
what is now being called fintech as a
service
now whenever you try to scale or Go
Global
you most likely will have to sign local
agreements deal with local regulation
possibly set up a local entity and that
can take months if not years especially
if you're trying to
conquer the world right and that's where
fintech as a service comes in to try and
do the heavy lifting associated with
scaling so the best analogy for fintech
as a service is to look at what Amazon
did with AWS in the field of technology
and financial services right so before
if you wanted to set up your own service
you have to find your own database build
your own firewall get the space to
accommodate the servers if you needed to
expand you need to have to buy more
equipment sign more agreements now with
AWS one API one integration you're
connected one agreement one invoice one
payment and you're good to go and that's
exactly the same kind of
service offering that fintech as a
service is going to offer to Global
Merchants so right now all you need is
one API one invoice one Recon file and
you get an access to a bundle Suite of
fintech related services that is going
to have handle your operational fintech
expansion issues so that you can focus
on your core business right and it's all
going to be powered by the fact that
there's increased adoption in
Technologies like Cloud software
artificial intelligence integrated with
financial services there's the growing
utilization of smartphones and print
circulated Services through digital
platforms right our friends at the the
markets and and reports guys tell us
that by 2020 by 2030 or the better part
of this decade the the market value of
that fintech as a service industry which
is already in existence is going to go
upwards of 900 million right and we've
as we've already said the covid-19
pandemic accelerated some of these
Journeys right so essentially the
message here is that all your consumers
are part Partners on your mission right
you need to think of the consumer as in
the room earlier on today we saw we
heard that you need to involve a
consumer who is thinking outside of the
rigid lines of what the internal
corporates are and it gives you the the
creativity to develop outside those
lines
okay now let's move on to one of the
technologies that has gotten a lot of
hype lately
web 3.0
right we hear this
a lot recently right so web 3.0 quite
simply is said to be the
the bundle of technologies that are
supposed to usher in the next generation
of the internet right our friends at
Bain and Co tell us that that ecosystem
now boasts thousands of companies and
there's substantial Investments upwards
of 18 billion dollars going into
startups within that ecosystem and now
you have big players like
like Nike Google JP Morgan all
experimenting with the technology just
to understand what the benefits
potentially could be and what that
technology could unlock for us but let's
take a step back and try and identify
where we've come from to get to this
point so just so we're on the same page
so remember the days of web 1.0
right this is the the era between 1990
between 1990 and 2005 where we had basic
websites that were all built on HTML
right I shared a joke with my friend
where as he said that these websites
were essentially glorified Microsoft web
pages right right remember the days of
dialogue modem when you had to actually
wait for the the phone to connect to the
internet without screeching noise that
in my opinion could cause seizures right
I actually don't whether there should be
more there should have been more reports
of people having seizures waiting for
the internet to connect in 1995. I don't
have the data but I'll check but
essentially it was a very static content
delivery Network right you you it was
called the read-only web because
essentially that's all that you could do
but it was what spared the.com bubble
that lasted from 1990 2005 and brought
about some of these internet Giants and
now fast forward to today's where we
have Web 2.0 where the internet began to
evolve to more user generated content
more user generated experiences and this
was called the the read write web
but this is where terms like blogging
vlogging social media networking social
media podcasting all of these terms
became popular right this is the era
where it this is what gave rise to the
tech giants like YouTube Facebook
Wikipedia all of the the ones that we
know today and essentially it invented
what was is now called as web as a
platform where you could actually build
software applications on the web as
opposed to on the desktop and now we're
at the point where we have web 3.0 now
web 3.0 is essentially as we've said the
bundle of technologies that are supposed
to usher in the next generation of the
internet and the expectation here is
that the the internet is supposed to be
a little bit more intelligent and should
be able to disseminate and this this
basically distribute information in such
a manner that would be akin to how
humans do this and this is based on a
number of
a number of Technologies right so I
don't know how many of these you've
heard you've heard about but it's all
part of The Suite that make up the web
3.0 so Edge Computing where data has
been is being processed closer to where
it's being generated so that you can now
process higher volumes you can now have
higher processing speeds so you get like
larger or more insightful or inside
driven leads for for actions right we
have the semantic web which is the
expectation that
machines will be able to interpret and
recognize data and information in such a
manner that is akin to how humans do it
both contextually and conceptually I
mean it's it sounds a little bit pie in
the sky but that that's the expectation
that data is no longer owned but it's
shared with different web services that
provide different views of the same kind
of web data and this is going to be a
more a hyper-connected more engaged
internet right you add in blockchain
technology and you're supposed to get
the benefits of transparency and
security that a open public Ledger gives
you right if you add in Ai and 3D
Graphics we are now moving into what is
being called a more immersive internet
and we'll talk a lot more about that
when we get into the aspect of
of the metaverse right that word and so
all of this is going to bring about more
connectivity ubiquity that is the theme
of what the internet is going to be now
there are lots of applications of web
3.0 in the field of financial services
but there's one particular application
that has be that's quite interesting and
has gotten a lot of attention recently
and that is the concept of dials or
decentralized autonomous organizations
now frankly I think Dao's or
decentralized autonomous organizations
are one of the most intriguing Concepts
that have been developed or implemented
via the blockchain technology now Dao's
essentially are entities that are
where the members of the that run on
Smart contract essentially now smart
contracts are self-executing contracts
so the members of a dow have tokens and
using these tokens they're able to vote
on the initiatives of the entity right
all the financial transactions and rules
of the entity are encoded via Smart
contracts into the blockchain and hence
the name decentralized and autonomous
because you do not need any Central
centralized authority to govern this
entity and because of these features
the Dow it has application and financial
services so for example is decentralized
because it's on an open blockchain an
open public Ledger no single individual
or group of people can influence the
organizations future for their own
selfish purpose right the transparency
it's a public open blockchain it can be
audited at any time and this brings
about better trust and stops or prevents
corruption the aspect of security
these smart contract codes are tested
and validated before they are deployed
and this allows and and because it's a
public open Ledger it prevents or at
least reduces their chances of attacks
and actual fraud and when it comes to
efficiency once you bring an automation
once you bring in smart contracts you
remove the the paperwork you remove the
human element of mistakes and
essentially you bring about more
efficiency and now there's applications
of that in banking so
in banking and Credit Unions right so
because one of the things that customers
really value about financial
institutions like Banks and Credit
Unions is the elements of trust I mean I
know historically there have been
there have been events that have sort of
caused turbulence when it comes to the
trust that people have of financial
institutions there was a report by Ernst
young that says the younger generation
are now placing fintechs at the top of
their most trusted Brands list with bags
Banks kind of like slowly lagging behind
and this just tells us that it's not
enough to just give your customers a
good service or product they need to
actually trust you and that's where the
elements of dials could come into
support banks credit unions tend to have
the same kind of structure as Dallas
it's all member driven but now with a
dow a credit union is not limited by the
geographic location they are able to
scale Beyond borders because there's no
element of physicality involved and
they're able to go beyond borders but
there's a lot that we can say about
doubt but it's just for us to know that
these are the things that are in the
pipeline that the fintechs are actually
running with I work in a fintech and you
should hear some of the things the ideas
that are thrown into senior level
boardrooms that you think are far out
and they and you hear the budget that
has been allocated to that and you know
that they're not playing right so now
let's go into something that is more
General that most people can relate to
and that is artificial intelligence
now obviously artificial intelligence is
no stranger in the field of financial
services it's the expectation that
machines will be able to make decisions
based on the data information that is
presented to them in the way that humans
do now I have a colleague who always
argues that through artificial
intelligence doesn't exist because
machines are not ever or at the point
where they can make subjective decisions
based on what information you present
them but the reality is that there are
applications of artificial intelligence
in financial services already
but if you look at the Consumer Finance
space there's already the presence of
chat Bots that are powered by natural
language processing that are able to
give customers the digital established
digital Communications with with
customers right earlier on we heard a
note and it's also a quote from
Accenture where they said we've gotten
to the point where we've gotten very
good at delivering
delivering virtual or digital
experiences that are functionally
correct but emotionally devoid so even
though you do have chatbots that are
available that are able to engage a
person to solve their issue or to
respond to queries there is that lack of
the human touch which is what the aim of
of things like AI or that's where the
goal is it's already used in wealth
management to to generate personalized
or tailored insights it's used in
corporate finance to combat and detect
fraud to analyze trends that would
header to go unnoticed by the human eye
right but one of the more interesting
applications of AI
in finance is
what is now being called digital twins
show of hands anyone who has heard of
digital twins
oh nice that's great
so the concept of digital twins is
beginning to become possible because in
the world where most companies are
reimagining themselves for a digital
first customer experience where the
evolution of technology is making a lot
of things that were previously unseen as
impossible possible the the potential
the possibility to have what is called a
digital twin is is now live more than
ever right so a digital twin essentially
by definition is a digital replica of a
physical product process or service so
you take something from The Real World
and you replicate it digitally but one
iteration of digital twins that is very
interesting is the concept of digital
humans or digital colleagues now the
digital twins essentially are to enable
you to simulate a product or process or
service so that you are able to identify
risk for see opportunities of growth or
even even prevent disasters that would
have happened in testing now the digital
human is supposed to be that of overlap
where you're now able to have the
digital experience but also have the
human touch and so digital humans are
essentially human-like AI powered
characters designed to be interacted
with by people it's supposed to be the
successor to the chatbot and upgrade to
the chatbot I think the
I think it's easier to demo or show you
what a human a digital twin a digital
human or digital colleague is rather
than trying to explain it to you so take
a look at this video
hi my name is Fred no I'm not a real
person I am the new digital human from
render people
I am a virtual 360 degree copy of my
real self
therefore I'm able to talk
to smile
to laugh
or to cry
just like a real human being
so the possibilities are endless
I could be a speaker moderating your
next digital event
foreign
for your online shop
this outfit suits you shall I add it to
your card
or I could tell you the status of your
car inspection
keeping you updated
fully digital and all without you having
to be on site
and this is only the beginning
the only limit is your creativity
foreign
[Music]
scary interesting exciting
hands up for interesting
hands up for ridiculous
I think the only limit is your
imagination as he said right but these
are the kind of things that are in the
pipeline that people are envisioning is
going to be the future of how we engage
and interact with people right they
assume that the younger generation is
going to be used to these kind of
engagements or expected because they're
getting it in the area of games and that
are fully immersive so what do you do
now assuming this is going to be the
future well we have a few points from
the AI transformation Playbook right so
where you start from is you start to
execute some pilot project right you
know your business more than anyone else
you know exactly the aspects of your
business where
if you run tests that actually brought
volume brought value would gain you the
kind of of buy-in that you need building
an in-house AI team so initially you do
want to Outsource to external AI experts
who have more experience in the field
but in the long run if you want to be
more efficient you would have to have
your own in-house AI team so you can
protect your IP and you can execute on
those small projects you need to provide
broad AI training because no company has
enough AI Talent it's scarce so the best
you can do is with the technology that's
available massive open online courses
you can upskill your existing staff to
get to the point where they do
appreciate what the future holds and
they do understand what the potential
benefits are you develop an AI strategy
because obviously you need to extract
you need to make sure that the
initiatives are in line with what the
organization's goals are you can't just
go off in any direction just because AI
is a nice big thing and in line with
that you need to be able to communicate
this and over communicate this to the
point where you get senior leadership
buy-in you get the understanding of
everyone else okay so obviously it's
going to be difficult to lead or to be
in an AI first world or to try and
establish your company as an AI first
institution and this quote says it all
right
it usually is going to be as they say
very difficult in the beginning messy in
the middle but if you are able to figure
this out or at least you're able to
project outward to what the possible
future can be work backwards to where
you are and try to do your best to fill
in the gaps it gets much better
now let's get to the metaverse
now the metaverse is a very interesting
concept I I really like this particular
topic and it was made popular most
recently by meta formerly Facebook but
the actual term metaverse has been in
existence since 1992. there was an
author Neil Stevenson who coined the
term in his book called snow crash but I
doubt that Neo in his book expected that
by 2022 this would become such a
buzzword so the metaverse is essentially
supposed to be
the future of the internet so there are
those who still feel that the metaverse
is a naive joke basically it's never
going to materialize but there are some
that also believe that via the metaverse
the internet is on the cusp of an
evolutionary leap so you have big
players like Microsoft Facebook 10 cents
all making big bets on the metaverse but
just so that we're on the same page
let's try and
let's try and understand what exactly
the metaverse is so the acronym XR
stands for extended reality and it's
made up of virtual reality augmented
reality and mixed reality so starting
from the middle one augmented reality
right so I think most of us were
introduced to the concept of augmented
reality somewhere in 2015 2016 with the
Pokemon go Application right so you
would see a bunch of kids running around
with their phones out you ask them hey
what's going on and they tell you we're
looking for Pokemon and that's a that's
one of the best examples of the
application of the technology another
would be the Ikea place app or virtual
place app right where you could have a
virtual model of their furniture that
you could overlay into your space just
to make sure that the furniture matches
the carpet matches the drape before you
make the purchase and that was another
application of that that particular
technology right and so augmented
reality essentially gives you a view of
the physical world and then overlays
that with digital elements then you have
virtual reality which is a fully
immersive digital environment so you see
the headsets the the VR headset that are
popular now so the Oculus the
PlayStation VR there's HTC Vive but they
basically take away the physical
elements and you go into a fully digital
world where there's digital elements and
you're you're basically in an alternate
reality basically and then there's the
element of mixed reality we joined the
pack now this tries to give you the best
of both worlds and mixed reality was
actually coined by Microsoft I think
they felt that they were getting left
out and they came up with their device
the the hololens 2 or the hololens one
now the hololens two which tries to give
you
the device itself has a glass that
covers the screen that allows you to see
the physical world and overlays that
with 3D Holograms right now the
difficulty of explaining what
virtual reality mixed reality augmented
reality is it's quite difficult so it's
easier to show you right so if you look
in this if you look at the seats in
front of you you'll find that there's
headsets
I'm just kidding I saw this guy do it
today and I wanted to do the same thing
it didn't work but I do have a video
that actually shows the concept that I'm
talking about so this is the Microsoft
hololens 2.
it essentially is supposed to be the
functional the functional version of
what has been used for gaming so far so
this is supposed to be for industry
utilization so right now it's being sold
to the tech people people in engineering
what it does is it gives you a view of
the physical world because of the glass
but then it is also matched with the
Microsoft mesh which is the the software
which allows you to be able to Overlay
that with Holograms so that you can
actually see what's happening and then
it has spatial awareness I actually sat
on a flight with someone who had a
similar device on their head and I asked
them what they were doing and they said
they're able to pull up the three
screens that they use from work and
engage with it because it has spatial
awareness it's able to detect hand
movement right but right now it's super
expensive and it's only given to a
select few but eventually with its
iteration it gets better and better
moving on from that you have the fully
immersive type of VR experience where
you are actually in an entirely digital
world so this is basically what we we
have in gaming now so
you go in you're basically hiding behind
an avatar and it's fully immersive that
the best bet that you can have from this
is to have a picture of your physical
world such as this but it's not really
the physical world it's a it's a it's a
replica of the physical world in a
digital environment right so Accenture
defines the metaphors across different
environments quite simply right so first
and foremost it's a place right it's a
destination no different from
someplace downtown New York someplace in
Shanghai Las Vegas it's a place that
people go a location a destination it's
a population so people are actually
going there to meet and interact such as
you have here as opposed to being or
being forced to interact with a
two-dimensional static screen right and
if you take that to the next logical
level just in the way we can own
property and assets it's also you can't
own property and assets in the digital
world or in the metaverse sorry you can
own land that is boasted by nfts you can
buy digital versions of of physical
objects and that is what leads to what
the opportunity for financial services
are so in the world in an actual world
where you have you have or in a virtual
world where people can actually own
assets and property it now becomes a
question of who is going to be that
player that is going to facilitate
transactions in an entirely digital or
virtual world who is going to be that
custodian or virtual assets where
there's no longer fiat currency but
people are holding cryptocurrency is
they're holding nfts they're holding
Central Bank digital currencies who is
going to be that leader in that space I
frankly believe that it's going to be a
joint effort and there's not going to be
any One bank because it's going to be a
game of collaboration but we begin to
see increasingly that other Banks or
other institutions are dipping their
toes there in into that space so in
South Korea we have Banks where that are
launching meta verses so that customers
are able to access personalized
financial institutions in France they've
launched a virtual reality app that
enables retail Bankers to access the
account activity and even Bank of
America is leveraging some of these
metaverse platforms for training if you
go all the way to to India you're
beginning to see that there are
institutions that are trying to be
enablers of the metaverse so they allow
Banks to onboard or create their meta
verses and then they sort of collaborate
or facilitate all of those Technologies
and then in in South Korea you're
beginning to see something that is
actually quite popular in Africa where
there's collaborations between mobile
network operators and Banks to develop
new technologies that are touted to be
the future of financial services so the
opportunity is there for for most people
in the metaverse right so people about
20 years ago we started with online
banking about 10 years ago we got into
Mobile Banking the metaverse is expected
to be a continuation of that right
trying to create experiences that offer
the customer value and not only is it
being used to enable online and Mobile
Banking it's also being leveraged for
staff training right so you want to
onboard a new staff rather than giving
them a 100 page PDF document you
actually give them a metaverse
experience that allows them to see the
history of the company in a a sub a
fully immersive way so that it's less
boring and that people learn faster
right it's an opportunity for people to
engage as we've said the experiences
we've created are devoid of that human
touch they're functionally correct and
the metaverse is trying to maintain the
digital experience but adding as much of
that human element as much as possible
and it gives you the opportunity to
reinvent
reinvent the customer or the financial
service experience or the banking
experience around this new customer that
is more virtually inclined and in that
sense you're able to reimagine financial
services for people who as we've said
are no longer look interested in the
physical engagement but are now looking
to engage on a more virtual level they
now have virtual assets virtual
currencies the the governed by Central
Bank digital currencies and they like so
the important thing for financial
institutions to do is to form a
metaverse strategy because obviously
there's no point in just being there you
actually have to have a purpose look
project outward to where you think your
consumer is going to be and work
backwards to where you are just being
there for the sake of being there is
doesn't make any sense now let's move on
to the final aspect which is the
workforce of the future
now in a world where the customer is
beginning to become increasingly
impatient they want more immediacy a lot
of Institutions are trying to
re-imagine themselves for that kind of
world now Not only would you require
there to be
new technology there's also going to be
new skills so we're going to take a look
at what the workforce of the future
looks like now there is a concept that
was put out by jll of what the future
Workforce would be like so it's not just
about these skills that are available
but essentially how work is going to be
done in a world that is powered by AI
machine learning all of these
Technologies web 3.0 metaverse digital
Twins and I think they captured it quite
nicely in this video so let's take a
look at this for a while and you let me
know what you think about this concept
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
good morning Amy
where would you like to work today the
office
what's the weather like today the
temperature is 18 degrees with a 57
chance of rain are you ready to start
your day give me 10 minutes okay how
would you like to get there I'll walk do
you want to ride no I'm good thank you
careful Amy obstacle ahead
[Music]
so once again what'd you guys think
interesting hands off
scary
worried about your data worried about AI
knowing so much about you I understand
you so
it's really interesting some of the
similarities that we have with with you
guys here right so the pandemic led to
fully remote working and then we went
into what was called hybrid working but
in Africa we tend to have this term
called physical right it's a combination
of physical and digital and it's a way
that you design products because most
people are semi-literate at best so you
have to be able to design a product that
has a very seamless handoff from the
digital to the physical in case the
product actually occurs consumer
actually does need help along the
digital journey and this looks like one
of those things that was designed in
such a way that there's a combination of
the physical and the digital so that is
projected to be the kind of workplaces
that we're going to be having where
there's that overlay of all these
Technologies creating a physical digital
working environment now assuming this is
actually going to be the way that we
work what do you do to put start
preparing your Workforce for that future
so very quickly
so going from workforce planning to work
planning basically means that you tend
to look at what kind of tasks will be
carried out in such a world and then map
that back to the kind of skills that you
would need and then you design roles
around those skills right you tend to
Pivot the workforce around
um the value of AI so as we've said
upskilling people in terms of AI by
simultaneously giving them those skills
and then using AI to challenge
traditional business models to open new
value stream and then you scale up those
priority areas that you require in order
to be to be ready for that kind of world
so the action items essentially are what
we've echoed all this time you have to
work backwards from the future next is
you have to see the world through the
eyes of your consumer as we've mentioned
and then you have to focus more on the
experience and less on the technology
because in reality the customer doesn't
care what the technology driving the
product is all they care about is the
experience and the value that they get
and in that in that way you are able to
recoup if you're able to deliver on that
so I'll end with this quote that is from
a poet Amanda Gorman that I really like
and he basically says let us not return
to what was normal but reach towards
what is next I think it's a very
powerful statement that captures the
spirit of everything that we've spoken
about and I do hope that I've shared
some valuable insights that will at
least inspire you on your journey
towards the future of fintech that we
know I've used up all the time so I'll
just be I'll be hanging around if you
want to catch me for a quick question
quick chat thank you very much and enjoy
the rest of your day
[Applause]
hello
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