20/20 View of 2020: 10 Trends for the Digital Future » Brave New Coin

There are two ways to look at the future: The first assumes a linear progression from past achievements and is relevant to forecasting short periods of time, where the future is a derivative of the past. The other method assumes that in the period of a decade, the law of accelerated returns applies exponentially and compounds acceleration assuming a high level of change in the period forecasted. The following is a short-term forecast and therefore does NOT assume we will see a period of accelerated returns because of the short sample of time. Many people in the financial industry are trying to prepare for or predict what the financial services sector will look like in 2020. Will artificial intelligence replace operations? Will performing financial functions occur in an instantaneous manner from the palm of our hands? Will there be enough disruption so that large banks will no longer exist?