By Asheesh Mehra, Co-Founder and CEO, AntWorks
Financial services are on the cusp of evolving thanks to new automation technologies. Most financial services companies will need to use the most advanced automation that exists in order to efficiently ingest, process and organise the documents they work with most frequently. The reports, email and text files that are primarily used by Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) businesses are considered ‘unstructured data.’ This refers to data where information is scrambled and not presented in a clear way, from videos, to images, audio files, text data and much more. Unstructured data is expected to make up 80 per cent of all the world’s business data by 2025, which means that BFSI companies will need automation solutions that can process unstructured data which will be clogging up the electronic pipelines in the next decade.
Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) isn’t going to cut it, as this type of automation can only process structured data, like inventory control, sales transactions, and ATM activity. RPA is also very task-based and can’t automate a business process from start to finish and requires human intervention. RPA isn’t AI.
So how can a BFSI enterprise prepare for the era of intelligent automation? To prepare accordingly, companies need to address which aspects of an entire business processes is most in need and can gain the most value from end-to-end automation, and then decide which technology solution will help them achieve their automation goals. It’s time for enterprises to move past RPA and implement intelligent Integrated Automation Platforms (IAPs) which provide a one-stop solution for data curation, and building, deploying, and managing AI-enabled digital workforces.
Innovate, don’t procrastinate
Despite 83 per cent of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) supporting automation in finance, only 43 per cent of finance executives admit that they need to innovate more. Companies are often reticent to innovate simply because they are skeptical about the real financial benefits and ROI of being the first mover to adopt technological solutions.
Financial services is an industry that is constantly under pressure to innovate. Take online banking for instance where UK citizens using online banking as their primary way of tracking spending increased dramatically from 47 per cent in 2012 to 73 per cent in 2019. With this sharp increase in the uptake a more digital service in such little time, banking firms have had to innovate quickly for fear of being left behind. By the end of 2014 there were 51 million contactless cards in circulation in the UK, but by 2017, there were close to 120 million – almost the equivalent of 2 cards per person. This signifies that BFSI can and will innovate when there’s a clear need for it. All this innovation has meant greater revenue opportunities for banks and has given rise to a new wave of challenger online banks becoming popular, like Monzo and Revolut.
Intelligent automation is expected to add US$512 billion in global revenue to the financial sector, but this can only be achieved when finance executives take the initiative to automate their processes with IAP.
As enterprises begin to embark on their AI journey, it’s imperative that employees are fully integrated into the process with employers simultaneously ascertaining which business processes need automating, and which employees will need reskilling and retraining to meet changing demands. With concerns mounting around automation replacing people’s jobs, it is the business’ responsibility to quell these fears. In fact, if done right, people shouldn’t be afraid of robotics and AI in the workplace, they should embrace it. AI has the power to enrich the employee experience—by removing the mundane and allowing people to focus on tasks that are more complex, creative, and require higher levels of decision making. It is up to leadership to invest in not just the technology but also in their talent.
Where do you need to automate?
Financial services and banking are industries where a huge variety of datasets exist. Customers still fill out paper forms to set up bank accounts, but they also use online services too. Banks are also managing customer service requests over the phone and via email. This means that employees in the BFSI sectors work with a huge variety of different types of data throughout their working days, meaning that several different departments can benefit from being automated with IAP.
The first key thing for companies to consider would be to identify which areas of the business are most reliant on unstructured data, and where the productivity lapses are with regards to processing this data.
With this in mind, enterprises need to be prepared and identify which processes requires automation. There are numerous departments in BFSI firms that deal primarily with unstructured data, including support teams, administration, fraud detection and among others. All of these departments can experience increase productivity in the digital workforce when adapting to IAP solutions.
Fraudsters are getting more sophisticated in gaining access to bank accounts and the banks need to always stay ahead of the latest technology in order manage customers’ expectations and safeguard assets. Automation which is built on fractal science can process both unstructured and structured data of all forms and help fraud detection teams ascertain whether a transaction is genuine or not by analysing all forms of a customer’s previous transactions that are recorded through unstructured and structured data. Giving customer assurances that their bank provide superior and automated fraud detection services, and providing further convenience for their employees will improve customer services by offering quicker and more efficient responses to enquiries or requests.
Remaining agile and competitive for the future
All industries have challenges ahead in terms of remaining competitive in their respective markets, especially in the UK where issues such as Brexit pose a threat to economic stability. More than a third of financial services firms have seen a 2 – 5 per cent increase in revenue from automation, and as more and more businesses realise the potential of intelligent automation, this figure will continue to rise.
Don’t procrastinate when it comes to innovation, but also be mindful about which type of solutions to adopt and how. As we move into the 2020s, companies need to seriously consider how automation will impact their businesses and make smart decisions about where to automate with IAP.
