How chatbots and AI might impact the B2C financial services industry

While many businesses have been speedy adopters of emerging and disruptive technologies, banking and the financial services industry has been seen to lag behind. This could be chalked up to a myriad of factors including complex legacy systems or even the fact that a significant portion of high value clients, particularly for wealth management firms and IFAs, are more likely to belong to senior demographics and may have a higher propensity for non-digital communication such as calls or face-to-face meetings. Because of this, a significant proportion of FS businesses may not have felt the need to invest in digital. This is also potentially exacerbated by the fact that their competitors and cohorts are also lagging in terms of digital. Research by Econsultancy and Adobe shows that 9% of FS businesses claim to be digital-first, compared to 11% across all sectors.