What if Technology is the Lazy Approach?
As we start 2024 with even more hype about AI, data and analytics: What if people are the best source for personalized services and interactions? What if technology is the lazy approach?
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
I’ve written a lot of predictions. Maybe you’ve read some of them. Not all of them good, though some of them were. Three years ago I wrote a newsletter issue about how I wasn’t in the business anymore of writing predictions.
What if technology is the lazy approach to a challenge best and maybe only solved with people?
And yet, this year, despite my own protests against predictions I did. Sort of. I collaborated with Barb MacLean, Efi Pylarinou & Theodora Lau on 4 Women with Radical Fintech Perspectives to share our unorthodox, diverse perspectives about financial services & the year to come.
My perspective - not really a prediction - is about personalization of banking & payments services - and the startling realization I’ve had in the last few months:
I have advocated for fintechs to develop and offer technologies that deliver real personalization capabilities — based on individual preferences and needs and aggregate needs based on hidden tribes. During 2023, I thought and wrote a lot about the demise of branches — not bemoaning the loss per se, but about the twin impact of bank branches on neighborhoods: economic growth of communities and access to credit. As we move into 2024 and even more hype about AI, data and analytics, I wonder: What if people are the best source for personalized services and interactions? What if technology is the lazy approach to a challenge best and maybe only solved with people?
I’ve written before about the importance of neighborhoods and banking services:
Who writes PivotAssets?
I’m an independent analyst, strategic advisor & consultant (& a former Gartner analyst). I’ve worked in and covered the banking industry for over 2 decades. I write about digital banking in this newsletter - not to confirm what you know (and you are plenty smart!) but to give you a fresh perspective & analysis on the transformation that is —and isn’t happening - in the industry.
How can I help you?
To collaborate with me on a similar project or something else completely different whether an analysis of your GTM stragey, analyst briefing presentation, a webinar series, podcast, panel, please contact me at stessa@pivotassets.co or via LinkedIn.
I’m also available for inquiry and strategy sessions via Third Eye Advisory.
Me, Elsewhere
I’m an expert advisor at Third Eye Advisory.
I spoke with Theodora Lau and Barb Maclean on their podcast One Vision about smart banking & hidden tribes
I moderated a great panel of folks for a conversation on innovation. We cut through the hype and share practical advice for making your digital transformation efforts pay off. We definitely talked about the importance of small innovations.
How can banks be truly low friction? They must address friction everywhere. Otherwise innovation & digital transformation will elude them. In this report I identified the characteristic of a low friction bank and why legacy core banking and architectures don’t support it.
What can the Kardashians teach your financial institution about partnerships and innovation? How can working with empathic fintechs help you identify niche groups (aka hidden tribes) and innovate. All this and more in this this ebook that you can download at Praxent or Nymbus.
Adopt an Agile Digital Banking Platform: How bankers must have an agile digital banking platform to support both global and local trends and requirements to help them identify new niche markets that will drive innovation, create new value and increase profitability. In this report I identified a set of capabilities that a digital banking platform must have that will help take banks into a competitive future and urges banks to select a digital banking partner who shares their innovation, vision and support for new value creation.