The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation and the need for IT departments to adapt to the working from home environment. While in recent months there has been a call from large corporates for the return of their staff to the office, many people have continued to work from their home offices. Some organizations have realized the benefits of a remote working culture, such as the ability to scale back on expensive offices, while others are adopting a hybrid approach that allows people to commute occasionally to the office and work from home most of the time. Infor-Tech Research Group says, "If the last two years have taught us anything, it's that organizations need their IT departments to survive and thrive in today's digital economy. This has now paved the way for IT leaders like yourself to expand on your department's maturity level and move out of a supportive role toward a more strategic role, enabling growth within your organization. The challenge then becomes, how do you move up the maturity ladder?"

Digital banking transformation has enabled many financial institutions to become more prepared for the future as the world was disrupted by the pandemic. For those banks and credit unions that have become the most digitally mature, the focus on improving the customer experience, increasing the use of data and advanced analytics, and deploying new technologies has positioned them at a competitive advantage. Despite the progress made, all financial institutions will need to increase investment in digital banking transformation initiatives, responding to marketplace expectations and adjusting business models to reflect a highly altered banking ecosystem. A great deal of the focus in 2022 will need to be on back-office processes that are highly outdated and have slowed the progression of all digital banking transformation efforts. The future will also see a greater involvement of banking staff in building humanized experiences for transactions that were initiated digitally.

And they're coming for your business -- with the power to build or destroy your ability to compete in the near future. "Those companies not considering investing and innovating will soon be outperformed by the new economy that runs on machine learning" Machine learning is already changing the world. As a key subset of artificial intelligence (AI), it enables computers to act and learn on their own, without being specifically programmed, by utilizing data and experience rather than being explicitly programmed. Self-driving cars, Netflix recommendations, and virtual personal assistants like Siri and Alexa are some of AI's best-known applications. One of the most immediate ways businesses use machine learning to improve their competitiveness is by automating back-office processes, the majority of which are high volume, rules-based functions that could seamlessly operate on a "lights out" basis, freeing up employees' time for achieving more strategic company objectives.

What a company chooses, determines the pace of its growth. Processes such as underwriting, claims to process, and policy servicing, bring along with them a plethora of important but mundane and repetitive work, affecting the overall organization's efficiency. This is where the need to automate systems and manual processes arise. Robotic process automation (RPA), with the use of software bots to handle routine processes and time-consuming data entry work, is an objective solution for any organization to drive customer-centric strategies and scale up operations. Why is RPA a Good Fit For the Insurance Sector?

The power of artificial intelligence (AI) and the usage of new digital technologies are providing the banking industry an opportunity for new forms of engagement. The movement from traditional channels to conversational banking is upon us. Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!Messaging platforms that include voice and text-based interfaces are being increasingly used by digital consumers as their preferred method of engagement, according to a research study from Accenture. The Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod (as well as other devices) all use technologies including AI, machine learning and natural-language processing (NLP) to enable voice engagement. An increasing number of financial organizations are beginning to take notice.

The power of artificial intelligence (AI) and the usage of new digital technologies are providing the banking industry an opportunity for new forms of engagement. The movement from traditional channels to conversational banking is upon us. Subscribe to The Financial Brand via email for FREE!Messaging platforms that include voice and text-based interfaces and being increasingly used by digital consumers as their preferred method of engagement, according to a research study from Accenture. The Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod (as well as other devices) use technologies such as AI, machine learning and natural-language processing (NLP) to enable voice engagement. An increasing nuber of financial organizations are beginning to take notice.