FinovateEurope 2017: designing good finance
FinovateEurope 2017: what awaits in the post-bank world?
Last week’s FinovateEurope was full of the broad range of exciting and innovative companies that we have come to expect at the show. Although the 72 companies showcasing their solutions operated right across the fintech landscape, they all sing from a common hymn sheet of improving the customer experience.
Rapidly advancing applications of artificial intelligence (AI), conversational user interfaces and other emerging technologies are driving a shift away from the conventional financial services approach to a more engaging and personalised customer journey.
What that actually means and how that is done was explored in a workshop run by R/GA London at the conference. Much of what R/GA London discussed is hardwired into the start-up ethos – responsive design, using data and advanced computing power to personalise the customer experience.
Pointing to what was envisioned as a “post-bank world” or the “platformification of finance”, R/GA London outlined how effective design can create an addictive customer experience. Essentially, design aimed on getting customers hooked on finance in the same way they check their Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat accounts repeatedly over the day.
Feeding that addiction will be the ways in which those future financial products and services are both connected and conversational – supported by the strong tech themes of AI (chatbots) and machine learning underpinning many of the innovative businesses seen at Finovate.
As in the example of Nike, whose platform has over 50 million active participants worldwide (that use it on average three times a week) and, crucially, increases revenue per customer, an ecosystem of products and services designed around the customer can clearly be both addictive and rewarding for the financial institution that gets it right.
By Lisa Moyle, director of strategy, fintech, FinTech Futures Series (Banking Technology’s sister company)
