In the UK, many industries are taking advantage of the endless benefits automation is bringing. Indeed, research from digital intelligence brand ABBYY states that 64% of UK businesses already employ process mining technologies, and more significantly, 28% have been using this technology to automate crucial processes. These numbers will only get bigger as more and more industries are seeing how automation has positively impacted profits, customer engagement, and internal operations.
One industry where automation has been significantly present is in the financial services sector. Money moves fast, and the financial industry needs to adapt just as quickly to provide optimal services. From insurance companies to big banks, automation has found its place in every financial sector as a revolutionary tech. With that in mind, we’ll take a look at how automation has been transforming the financial sector’s key processes.
Automation has always been at the forefront of efficiency initiatives. In the financial sector, key processes have been known to take a while — naturally because of old legacy systems and human workforces that are prone to biases and traditional methodology. Since automation leans on accurate data and industry insights, automating operation decisions can eliminate the risks surrounding administrative tasks and shorten the time it takes to reach a resolution. To illustrate, settling claims takes up a large part of an insurance company’s time as they need to collate information from multiple sources and analyse the data by hand. Entrepreneur outlines how Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can streamline this process by helping insurers hand over tasks to claim handlers and consolidate disparate claim information. This shows automation’s biggest advantage: expediting processes for bigger profits.
But more than just facilitating administrative tasks, automation also humanises key financial sector processes by taking away the heavy lifting from overworked staff. DQPro co-founder Nick Mair points out that manual, office-based processes are incapable of keeping up with market demands and can be too much for the average office worker to handle. This is why he suggests that the only reasonable solution is through automating as many processes as possible.
However, it’s important to be mindful of the types of decisions you leave for automated systems to handle. No matter how advanced automation may seem, it is not a be-all end-all solution to your company’s woes. In the world of investments, such as the forex market for example, bots can automatically scan market statistics and execute the best possible trades automatically. A guide to forex robots on FXCM highlights how although this has plenty of benefits — such as enhanced precision, limited emotional trading, and quick capabilities — it also has some drawbacks. For one, markets are particularly dynamic atmospheres, and leaving bots to their own devices might spell disaster on a trader’s profits as heightened and stagnate volatility interferes with the trading rules in place. There is also the issue that autonomous machines need to be constantly updated in order to keep up with evolving trading rules, making them less adaptable. But, if artificial intelligence (AI) projects like bots are constantly fed and updated with the most recent market data, its major flaws can easily be solved.
It isn’t just behind the scenes that AI is making a difference. Fintech Future’s article on the rise of AI in banking emphasises how chatbots that use natural language processing (NLP) have been utilised by banks everywhere as it cuts down on the need for bank tellers to answer every query a customer has. Moreover, these kinds of processes have been automated with machine learning techniques and need minimal human intervention. From new credit card schemes to updated insurance plans, studying a customer’s data and creating a fully customised experience can certainly help with keeping them loyal and satisfied with the brand.
Overall, automation transcends every trade and has proven itself to be a necessary tool for the financial industry. Other than streamlining administrative processes, carefully feeding key market insight and customer data to automated processes will also humanise the financial services sector.
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