Financial Services Industry Insights

For more than 18 years, Chief Disruptor has been a forum for assessing, evaluating, and debating the impact of disruption on organisations. We have gained unique insight from members, partners, speakers, academics, journalists and others into the forces shaping how we live and work.

It is, therefore, my pleasure to share a blog we wrote earlier this year looking at the key driving forces of change, the influence of external market challenges, and the disruptive strategies, mindsets, and technologies across the financial services industry. The blog combines data from our 2023 Disruptive Trends Report with qualitative insights from our C-level community.

Whether it is inflationary pressure, interest rate rises, a cost of living crisis, cyber attacks, the SVB crisis or the Credit Suisse collapse, financial services of all kinds have been in the limelight in 2023. However, when it comes to digital disruption, there is a successful track record of digitalisation and disruptive technology adoption which is arguably the foundation for wide-scale digital transformation and a shift to “digital-first” financial services.??

In short, 2023 represents both an opportunity and a challenge for financial services and our survey responses provide a fascinating snapshot of how technology and business leaders are responding. Whilst a full analysis can be found here, here? are some? reflections and takeaways from what have we learnt from the Chief Disruptor Community:

• The level of disruption in the external environment appears to be causing a shift towards more flexible, resilient and agile ways of planning. External pressures and uncertainty, whether economic, technological or geopolitical, demand a greater ability to pivot and adapt business and operating models using technologies such as cloud and data-driven insights. However, at this time governance, regulation and risk management are likely to be top priorities; potentially limiting financial services to traditional planning.
• As a result of interest rate increases, business and technology leaders will focus on optimising customer experience. Financial services now find themselves competing for customers; customer recruitment and retention and increasing customer lifetime value are rising up the agenda. To do this, organisations will need to supercharge their product innovation and develop new products and services” with the help of technologies such as Big Data Analytics, AI and APIs capable of creating personalised and seamless customer experiences.
• Due to continued disruption and uncertainty, financial services are also focusing on increasing operational efficiency through end-to-end digital transformation. Financial services are seeking to modernise their core technologies and processes which have historically been overlooked for smaller projects. In particular, Cloud and Big Data Analytics will act as a foundation for building new digital capabilities and unlocking technology-driven competitive advantage. Automation will also play a? large role in achieving operational efficiencies. Here, technology and information leaders are becoming crucial business partners for not just maximising bottom-line growth but also leading on wide-scale business transformation to “digital-first” organisations.
• Looking forward, AI and ML will increasingly become a driving force of competitive advantage for businesses and technology within financial services. AI and ML, of course, already play a massive role within financial services in fighting financial crime, managing risk, trading, and compliance as well as other use cases. But, as we see the emergence of generative and conversational AI, the use cases for leveraging AI for customer experience, data science and business transformation will expand; organisations must move quickly to update AI strategies, address ethical and cultural challenges and build business cases.

Head over to our blog to discover the full article on the challenges and opportunities facing the financial services industry in 2023 and explore the insights from our 2023 Disruptive Trends Report . We look forward to welcoming you to our community of disruptors, change-makers and innovators.

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