Industry Insights: Trust vs. Convenience
Who Do You Trust?
While consumer trust in financial institutions remains low, financial institutions scurry to provide more and more convenient self-services—which require several layers of trust to succeed.
Consumers need to trust our technology to safeguard their account and transaction information. They need to trust that they’re being treated fairly by your business practices. And they need to trust that whatever channel they use for one of your services, they can seamlessly complete their business with a minimum of friction—or risk.
All of the articles we’ve collected for you here address various aspects of this issue.
Nowhere is the tradeoff between trust and convenience more apparent than services supported by artificial intelligence. AI is no longer optional, because it’s already working its way into the financial world. But is it a monster about to eat you for dinner? Or just another extension of the digital transformation, as the first article below suggests?
No bank or credit union wants to be left in the competitive dust by failing to adopt new technologies, but a lot of smart observers urge caution. The third article below, for example, argues that, “Everyone always jumps to the end state, where AI replaces a person. It makes more sense to think of gradual adoption than sweeping change.”
- AI-driven banks must start with fundamentals. Banking Exchange. Argues that “few industries are as vulnerable to disruption by AI as banking. That’s because banking is a process- and data-driven industry.” Even so, the rate of adoption is slow, and the best applications start in the back office with a specific problem or goal that AI can help them solve.
- BankThink. Has tech earned our trust, or are we just complacent? American Banker. This article considers where to draw the line between trust and convenience, from the consumers’ perspective, in banking and related industries.
- AI acceptance by consumers is a work in progress. Banking Exchange. It’s not just big banks that have embedded AI in their digital banking channels. Trading trust for convenience permeates the entire world we live in. But only 10% of consumers see the advantage for banking, and only 12% deliberately choose to use it. That’s a long way from being ready to rely on a chatbot to invest your life savings.
- The Best of Times, the Worst of Times. Medium Corporation. In case you don’t have enough to think about, this article considers the future of jobs in a post-AI world—including by the way, “trust officers.” But although we face a future of “wrenching transformation,” more jobs will be enhanced than replaced. That sounds like good news. But who knows?
About the Industry Insights Series
Alogent’s Industry Insights—this blog and the companion newsletter series—track insights into transformative financial technologies as they happen. Our diverse team of experts pulls the threads together and weave in thoughtful—often actionable—analysis to help banks and credit unions keep their competitive edge and meet new generations of consumers where they’re going next.
