Fast forward 1 year-where will technology take us in the financial services sector?
I am asked quite often to speak on the topic of technology and where these incredible advancements will lead us in a few years. When we look at the current landscape there is no doubt that our industry is moving into a data centric environment, where carriers that leverage and manage technology and data will undoubtedly advance to the forefront. Consider some very disturbing statistics I heard while participating at a recent educational conference in Washington D.C. Several leaders from prestigious universities such as Princeton and Penn State were sitting on a panel discussing the job market and our future direction as a country. Predictions reveal that within 15-20 years approximately 50%; yes, that is correct, 50%, of current jobs will not exist due to automation and technology. Don’t fret; the message is not to imply that robots will be taking over, but there is no doubt that technology will be leveraged to manage almost all menial tasks. What this implies is that future jobs will be more focused around this technology, such as ways to fix it when broken, ways to manage it, develop it, and in my opinion the new hot job will be translators, or those that can sift through the immense technology in the world and make strategic decision on which platform to insert in a particular scenario. As you go about your day today, pay attention to all of the people you cross paths with and how their roles will change in these next 15-20 years. How about cashiers, uber drivers, accountants, and lawyers; we will always need a human aspect to almost every position, but it is incredible to ponder how the world could literally be taken over by automation.
Let’s consider automation in fraud detection; undoubtedly, technology can be used to leverage highly efficient fraud fighting, from rule based software, to analytics, network visualization, machine learning models, and many others. What all of these systems do is look for fraud in an automated fashion, however, we still need knowledgeable people that are familiar with fraud trends and patterns and can analyze results and make appropriate modifications and recommendations. I often see carriers that look to rely solely on technology as their fraud prevention tool, without aligning it with the proper individuals, or human element, to manage it. When I look into the future, this is one of the biggest trends that I fear, removing the human experts from fraud fighting.
What we can do as an industry is make sure we are advancing the knowledge of our people and making sure they are aligning with this technological revolution. Sign your employees up for advanced training, let them attend a few conferences, provide support to them in pursuing an advanced degree, anything to ensure that we are not left behind with just the robots!
Stay safe!
Dr. Fraud