Finance technology (fintech) and business development were to industries that had to step up and exceed expectations. As the pandemic threatened to stop the world in its tracks, organizations everywhere had to find ways in order to survive–making business development an urgent agenda for everyone.
As such, it has become apparent that the new landscape is here to stay. New technologies and business intelligence tools continue to emerge to help organizations of all sizes keep up with the rapidly changing landscape.
If you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve, check out these top five technology trends for fintech and business development:
1. More growth for artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has been growing steadily over the past few years, finding increasing applications in business and finance. From assessing massive sets of consumer data to the use of an app for stock market analysis, this trend is expected to only continue this year.
This is expected to be further accelerated by the pandemic’s lasting effect of shifting organizations from in-person, in-office work to remote working arrangements. More business development and fintech opportunities are projected to initiate their own shifts. Future technologies will be relying more on machine learning to automate the assessment and analysis of big data while natural language processing will see greater use in improving the customer experience.
In fact, a market research report projects that the AI industry in fintech alone is projected to have a 19.8 percent compound annual growth rate in the period between 2020 to 2030. This is also credited to an increasing application of the technology for various processes.
2. Blockchain challenging conventional protocols
As businesses and organizations adopt remote working arrangements, making sure that all financial and business records are secure is becoming a more urgent priority. Management consulting firm McKinsey reports blockchain as another emerging technology that can even “disrupt established financial protocols.” In fintech, distributed ledger technologies are used to record and transmit data for use of different participants, often in real-time.
Nowadays, some of these ledgers also use blockchain technology. This refers to a distributed and decentralized ledger that tracks every transaction made and the assets moved within it. The supposedly immutable technology is expected to be developed in a way that it is now compatible and interoperable with other existing protocols. By adopting a cross-chain strategy, the network of users retains access to the file they need while enjoying the level of security used by most cryptocurrencies today.
Furthermore, decentralized finance (DeFi) is becoming a rapidly-growing industry as traditional stakeholders are diversifying assets in the cryptocurrency and the non-fungible token (NFT) space. Investors looking to further improve financial health are taking risks through these digital assets. This blockchain-based market was already worth $826.6 million in 2020 and is only expected to grow even further.
3. More contactless options
The pandemic has demonstrated that it is possible to avail of products and services even without physical contact between sellers and buyers. It can also be said for payment options as virtual payment and cashless alternatives, which saw a spike in demand among users–prompting businesses to adopt in return. If you’re looking to grow your business, you might want to consider adopting these growing trends.
Among fast-food chains and airports, for example, there has been a marked increase in the use of self-service kiosks. These customer terminals allow customers to interact with the company, often with the use of a touchscreen. Other industries are adopting ecommerce solutions that adopt more payment options, with some even starting to accept cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. These are some of the technologies businesses can start investing in. Not only do they streamline processes by automating them, but they also improve customer experience through a sense of convenience and safety.
4. Automation and IoT
Although it has been around for a couple of years now, the Internet of Things (IoT) has finally stepped into the front and center as it helps foster a contactless lifestyle, not to mention how it changes our perception and processing of data. One integral part of businesses, fintech, and IoT is the increasing use of sensors. New sensing technologies as well as more economic ways of manufacturing existing ones have made them more accessible to businesses and end-users alike. Sensors revolutionize the business development sector by opening new strategies for data collection.
Some improvements over the previous years include the use of RFIDs and near-field technology (NFT) for presence detection and monitoring of moving elements such as traffic in parking spaces or trucks logging in at the pick-up or drop-off locations. Even ATM machines today are fitted with additional sensors that can detect traffic, giving operators and maintenance teams an insight that can help inform their respective schedules.
5. Augmented and virtual reality tools (AR/ VR)
While most people see augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tools for entertainment, these techs are also finding applications in the fintech and business development sectors. By generating a virtual environment on varying levels, these solutions create a more immersive experience that helps users better visualize and assess assets, graphs, and patterns. This improvement is particularly important in making investment and business decisions.
The same platforms used for video games are being used by businesses to visualize large amounts of data. One such example is the software developer Salesforce using Oculus Rift, Vuzix, and Meta 3D wearables to generate augmented reality and put data in a form that is easier to appreciate and understand. Of course, the same techs can be used by companies to better create engagement with their customers through a three-dimensional, interactive, and immersive experience that better drives their products and services.