“Success in creating effective AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilization. Or the worst. We just don’t know. So, we cannot know if we will be infinitely helped by AI, or ignored by it and side-lined, or conceivably destroyed by it,” noted physicist Stephen Hawking postulated in 2017, shortly before his death.
By now, most of us will have at least heard of the Internet of things (IoT), with many excitedly anticipating the realm of possibilities that the collection and utilisation of data by IoT devices will eventually offer. Among those possibilities is the invaluable insight that this data will provide, particularly with regards to our interests, preferences and regular habits and practices.
As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, financial institutions all across the world are under intense pressure to improve efficiency, reduce costs and boost productivity. Indeed, there is now a considerable global need for the financial-services industry to evolve comprehensively from traditional, age-old business models.
It’s fair to say that 2020 has been among the most consequential years ever for the fintech (financial technology) industry. Thanks in no small part to a deadly pandemic that swept across much of the world, consumers, households and businesses alike have all had to depend on the digital world a whole lot more than at any time previously.
As COVID-19 continues to transform our daily lives in significant ways, traditional banking models have come under intense pressure. Technology is facilitating a rapidly evolving landscape for financial services, with the execution of financial transactions no longer solely under the stewardship of conventional financial institutions.
The robots are taking our jobs—or are they? This has been one of the most hotly discussed subjects of recent years as the startling developmental leaps being made in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics continue to make automation more sentient, efficient and productive.
If you are based in Singapore, you might have seen a dog-like robot patrolling some of the city-state’s parks earlier this year. Called Spot, the four-legged robot created by US-based Boston Dynamics is equipped with cameras and sensors to detect the concentration of group sizes gathering in parks while also reinforcing social-distancing rules
When human beings congregate in one space, troubles often abound. Even so, urbanization continues to surge, and information and communications technology plays a crucial role in improving living standards through the creation of smart cities. Thriving smart cities are greener, more efficient and much cleaner than their traditional urban counterparts, and they accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of allowing increasing numbers of human beings to occupy confined geographical spaces successfully.
One asset that financial institutions do not lack is data. They are keepers of massive volumes of customer data. But storing and managing data has not provided them with all of its potential value; banks are increasingly enhancing management with analytics to gain maximum advantage from data. Better cost optimization, greater regulatory compliance, improved user enablement and informed decision-making are only a few of the benefits of this coordinated approach.
Human beings are wary of machines, especially when entrusting them with the most important aspects of their lives, such as finances. But as machine-learning and artificial-intelligence technologies become more sophisticated, learning from human brains, they are proving that when programmed correctly, they offer a wide range of advantages, especially in banking. The more human beings use them, the more successful they become in achieving what they were created to accomplish.