How Intelligent Automation Is Transforming Banks

Jim is an Audit & Assurance partner with Deloitte & Touche LLP, based in Houston, TX. He serves as our central region governance, risk, and controls (GRC) leader within our Accounting and Reporting Advisory business. Jim has more than 26 years of experience with a particular focus on the oilfield services, manufacturing, and retail sectors and has served a wide range of publicly traded and private companies. He has extensive experience providing external audit and advisory services, including U.S. GAAP and industry-specific oversight, SEC financial reporting, and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) internal control readiness and attestation services to a variety of companies.

One of these new trading “inventions” was the creation of never-before-seen “bundled” derivatives. Although technophiles love to debate the topic, it is commonly thought that the intersection between personal computing and spreadsheets occurred with the invention of these new derivative bundles. For the better part of nearly two decades since their invention, derivatives, like the aforementioned, promulgated and largely went unchecked or regulated by both financial service firms and regulatory authorities.

Decentralized Flux Cloud Launches New Product to Tackle AI Compute Challenges

But as technology evolves, programmatic automation helps modernize individual solutions or the core banking platform through periodic enhancements. This ultimately allows banks to get the best bang for their buck by optimizing their existing technologies and eliminating the need to invest in more. Rather than replace human staff and lose many institutions’ key differentiator – their relationship-first service – a strategic approach to automation aims to make work for banking staff more meaningful and impactful. Business processes like account closing, dispute tracking and rate changes are vital, but they shouldn’t monopolize internal resources like brain power, time and dollars. Employees at financial institutions have a lot to focus on without wasting time on cumbersome processes that innovative technology could complete instantly. Strategically implementing automation can save time and make their lives easier, freeing them to focus on customer relationships and more complex tasks requiring human intervention.

• Automation holds the key to revolutionizing front- and back-office operations, driving unprecedented efficiency and enhancing the overall customer experience.
• A report by Clockify shows that up to 90% of workers spend time on repetitive, manual tasks that are fundamentally unenjoyable.
• As we contemplate what automation means for banking in the future, can we draw any lessons from one of the most successful innovations the industry has seen—the automated teller machine, or ATM?
• Given the rise of chatbots, customer service workers are especially vulnerable to being (at least partially) replaced by machines.

Over the past decade, the transition to digital systems has helped speed up and minimize repetitive tasks. But to prepare yourself for your customers’ growing expectations, increase scalability, and stay competitive, you need a complete banking automation solution. Third, banks will need to redesign overall customer experiences and specific journeys for omnichannel interaction. This involves allowing customers to move across multiple modes (e.g., web, mobile app, branch, call center, smart devices) seamlessly within a single journey and retaining and continuously updating the latest context of interaction.

Achieving banking objectives through intelligent automation

Many banks, however, have struggled to move from experimentation around select use cases to scaling AI technologies across the organization. Reasons include the lack of a clear strategy for AI, an inflexible and investment-starved technology core, fragmented data assets, and outmoded operating models that hamper collaboration between business and technology teams. What is more, several trends in digital engagement have accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and big-tech companies are looking to enter financial services as the next adjacency. To compete successfully and thrive, incumbent banks must become “AI-first” institutions, adopting AI technologies as the foundation for new value propositions and distinctive customer experiences.

With the incoming of Artificial Intelligence in almost every industry, the banking sector is no stranger to the winds of change. As customer expectations soar, regulatory demands intensify, and the need for efficiency becomes paramount, banks are increasingly turning to cutting-edge technologies to stay competitive. One such technological marvel that has gained significant traction is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA will play a pivotal role in enhancing risk management processes, helping banks identify and mitigate potential risks in real-time.

What Is Banking Automation?

Read more about Automation in Considerations About Technology here.