Amy, tell me more about the Future of Banking

A decade on from the global financial crisis and socio-political uncertainty, the signs that the banking industry has entered the late phase of the economic cycle are clear: people perceive to have become poorer, their trust towards banks is declining and hence only 40 per cent of the traditional banks worldwide are creating value, whilst the other 60 per cent is destroying it. 

Moreover, private financial management is fragmented: in Italy, people have an average of 2+ bank accounts each, multiple financial services, many different investments - often invisible for the bank -, and many partners for planning their finances. In the US, people live in an even more fragmented financial environment.

Banks remain in charge of their clients’ finance and transactions but lose the direct relationship. While traditional banks are struggling to reinvent themselves, shifting to the form of digital banks - new players such as neobanks have entered the market. They are not replacing the traditional banks, but they are forcing the financial system to a deep renovation: customer centricity, user experience, organizational evolution.

We have pinpointed three design pillars that are going to shape the future of banking, for private as well as business clients. We have rooted our scenario into them. 

01

A bank is a lifestyle company

In the future, the bank will be far more than an aggregator of financial services; it will become the enabler of all the facilities that influence people’s life choices. The bank turns into a lifestyle company, an agent that knows the user and their needs, is able to propose and plan future solutions, anticipates obstacles and at the same time allows these needs to be realized through monetary transactions within the ecosystem.

02

Data are the ultimate treasure of a bank

For decades, banks have been sitting on an inestimable goldmine: the massive amount of transactional data coming from all their clients’ financial movements. Data is becoming the new asset to value.

Banks will have to get as data-savvy as the most successful tech companies, learning how to mine their transactional data and how to make the most out of it, aiming to a better customer experience.

03

Every bank is founded on trust

Today, half of the banks’ customers globally don’t trust their banks (Edelman Trust Barometer, 2018), despite them being in charge of protecting their finances. To recover their clients’ trust, banks will have to open their doors and show why and how they are going to make use of all the data they have available: customers will be eager to give in their data if they are granted tangible benefits.

Amy is an agent AI. She is an autonomous entity which acts, directs its activity towards achieving the goals of its human companion, processes multiple data, reacts in real-time, learns from experience and thus automatizes a large set of tasks on behalf of its human counterpart. 

Users share with Amy something about themselves, their aspirations and life purpose. This allows a more profound knowledge of the users’ true intentions and an even more personalized experience.

Personalization

What if you could trust your financial partner like a friend?

Users can choose the name, color and personality of their virtual agent, so that it becomes a trustworthy companion for their everyday tasks.

Goal settings

What if the bank cared for more than your money and wanted to really know you?

Besides setting their financial goals and purchase objectives, users are also asked to tell something about themselves, their aspirations and life purpose, through a guided and progressive set of questions.

Amy’s ultimate goal is to enable the customers to complete their tasks and help them to fulfil their life goals. It is:

• Empathic: it understands the customers’ real needs and emotions, and speaks their language.
• Adaptive: it tunes its behaviour according to the customer’s peculiar interactions.
• Proactive: it anticipates the customers’ needs and expectations and fully meets them.
• Trustworthy: it knows you, protects your privacy sharing only the data you want to share, and pursues your goals, and yours only.

The virtual agent belongs to the bank, whose brand it shows: in this way, maintaining the sense of authority and trust with the banking institution. The visual identity of the agent, its manners and voice are built to fit the person who will use its services.

Users get an aggregated overview of their financial situation, based on their behavioural profile, showing data gathered from all their financial accounts and additional services, all in one place. This allows them to become aware of their spending patterns and have direct evidence of potential incoming peaks.

Overview

What if you could have an overview of your whole financial status in one place?

Users have an aggregated overview of their financial situation, showing data gathered from all their financial accounts and additional services, all in one place.

Dynamic Goals

Why can’t the bank help you with the money moments you enjoy the most?

In 2025, the bank not only knows its client’s goals but also helps them dynamically comply with their target. The agent will track down the best deals and paths to reach the goals the user wants and needs - even if they can’t afford them right now; it will also help the user prioritize and automatically save for all their aims.

Sustainability

What if banks helped unveil habits and behaviors you weren’t aware of?

Amy enhances its human counterpart, protects her interests and, if available, suggests alternative services aligned with her financial and social goals.

Moreover, Amy can speak with all the smart objects around her human counterpart, and she can easily detect their behaviours and usage patterns. This allows the suggestion of virtuous actions, such as reducing energy consumption and saving money. 

Amy autonomously keeps monitoring the market and the economic trends based on the customers’ goals, and proactively makes suggestions to help them reach those goals. She knows when the time is right for the customer to make investments: it suggests the ideal amount of money to invest according to their current situation and simulates the interest rates that could be gained.

The agent learns the customer’s spending patterns and automatically makes adjustments among their checking account, savings and investments, even on third parties services, to maximize the returns on their money while keeping enough cash for everyday expenses.

Investments

What if the bank helps you invest money when you can afford it?

Amy knows when the time is right for the customer to make investments: it suggests the ideal amount of money to invest according to their current situation and simulates the interest rates that could be gained.

Growth

What if the bank saved
your money?

Amy provides an accurate picture of the user’s business cash flows across different currencies and supports them in transferring capitals across currency accounts.

The bank could become the partner that supports its customers in reaching both their life and business goals. 

The virtual agent monitors the business performance and knows when it’s the right moment to invest money in its improvement, by suggesting and managing the subscription to additional third-party services of interest.

With her always updated overview of both the internal financial status and the external market context, Amy knows when it’s time to dare and make a move to expand the business, also providing detailed reasons why (e.g. information about the type of people visiting the suggested locations, emerging trends in the area, etc.).

Business Optimization

What if the bank had also your business’ interests 
at heart?

The virtual agent is also intended for small business initiatives, helping entrepreneurs to manage and develop their business with advanced features specific to their business needs.

The relationship with the branch changes and is enriched with new opportunities. The physical space of the branch is transformed: from a mere office to a multifunctional space that combines the services of the bank with additional ones such as bars and co-working spaces, allowing customers to work, relax and grow their business.

New business

What if answers were provided even before 
asking the questions?

The virtual agent is always listening, even during meetings with other bank employees, detecting relevant topics, keywords and commands from the conversation, processing the information and returning in real-time data useful for the achievement of the task.