The status quo in retail banking is tottering. This has forced banks and credit unions to modify their business models, re-prioritize investments, change products and services offered and ramp up innovation efforts. There has also been a rethinking of distribution options, with digital channels significantly increasing in importance. These shifts are reflected in the sixth iteration of a study of the future of retail banking conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, on behalf of Temenos. Until recently, the changes in consumer behavior were believed to be the primary impetus for changes in retail banking strategies.

Banks are bullish that artificial intelligence (AI) will help them achieve their business priorities, fuelling back-office efficiency gains, product innovation and new business models. Our recent survey with The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU) found technology decision-makers have a "clear strategy" for using AI to achieve their goals. But on which business areas are banks focusing their AI investments, what barriers to adoption remain and what is the role of explainable AI in the future of banking? Together with The EIU, we sought the answers to these questions and more in a new report: Banking on a Game-Changer – AI in Financial Services, incorporating data from over 200 global banking IT executives.

Though it's rarely discussed, its proper integration determines whether it will make customers' lives better than ever before OR become deadly dangerous if applied without human centricity. A radical paradigm shift is required to ensure that the hyper-personalization of AI banking is not compromised by a lack of expertise in AI, technology or customer banking experience. According to Temenos, 77% of banking leaders strongly believe that AI will be the biggest game changer of all advanced technologies. Amid the pandemic, 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives, while 68% state that COVID-19 has elevated their expectations of brands' digital capabilities, according to Salesforce. We can see that, prior to COVID-19, experimenting with AI possibilities was more like a tick-box exercise to keep up with the slogan of innovation.

Banking experts from around the world believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will become the differentiating factor between banks that will succeed and those that will fail, in the new era of global banking. A new report by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which was sponsored by Geneva-based banking software company Temenos AG, surveyed some 305 banking executives from around the world. The report also noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has put global banks under immense pressure to readjust their strategies and align with the technological requirements of the 21st-century banking industry. "Retail, corporate and private banks were already under pressure to deploy new technologies and reshape their company cultures in order to compete with big tech firms and payment players. Now, as digital banking surges due to the coronavirus pandemic, this task is more pressing than ever," said some part of the report.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology at banks will be the difference between success and failure for them in the coming years, according to around three-quarters of bankers. According to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), for Temenos, only cyber security will be a bigger primary focus for technology investment than AI in the next few years. A total of 35% of executives said cyber security is their primary technology investment focus, compared with 33% prioritising AI platforms. Banks recognise the importance of investing in technology to improve customer services, with AI's potential to personalise customer experience seen as an attractive prospect. Some 77% of respondents said AI will separate the winners and the losers.

To support Thai policymakers in navigating this transition, the Institute of Public Policy and Development commissioned The Economist Intelligence Unit to conduct a foresight exercise that investigates how AI could affect key social and economic metrics in Thailand across three scenarios. In each of these scenarios, we have assumed that AI technology will substantially increase the use of computers and raise productivity. We focused our analysis on two critical and uncertain factors: the effectiveness of industrial policy and the extent of skills development in an AI-augmented economy. To better measure the magnitude of these impacts, we built an econometric model that forecasts four social and economic metrics to 2035: GDP growth, employment, productivity, and the relative importance of different sectors in the economy (industry, services and agriculture). We used qualitative analysis to build out our scenarios, considering the implications of AI and AI-assisted automation for specific sub-sectors of the economy, as well as wages, inequality, and social and political impacts.

In January-March 2019 The Economist Intelligence Unit, on behalf of Temenos, surveyed 405 global banking executives on the changes they see taking place in their industry to 2020 and 2025, their organisational response, and the longer-term impact on their strategic development. This, the sixth iteration of the retail banking survey, focuses on how these retail banks are incorporating and advancing technology delivery for their current and future customers. The survey is part of a global research programme on retail banking, which includes in-depth interviews with retail banks, fintechs and regulators from North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. The survey respondents were geographically diverse: 25% were drawn from Europe, 25% from Asia-Pacific, 18% from North America, 16% from Africa and the Middle East, and 16% from Latin America. Respondents came from a variety of job functions: marketing and sales (18%), IT (15%), and customer service and finance each accounted for about one in ten respondents (9% and 10% respectively).

The status quo in retail banking is tottering. This has forced banks and credit unions to modify their business models, re-prioritize investments, change products and services offered and ramp up innovation efforts. There has also been a rethinking of distribution options, with digital channels significantly increasing in importance. These shifts are reflected in the sixth iteration of a study of the future of retail banking conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, on behalf of Temenos. Until recently, the changes in consumer behavior were believed to be the primary impetus for changes in retail banking strategies.

The status quo in retail banking is tottering. This has forced banks and credit unions to modify their business models, re-prioritize investments, change products and services offered and ramp up innovation efforts. There has also been a rethinking of distribution options, with digital channels significantly increasing in importance. These shifts are reflected in the sixth iteration of a study of the future of retail banking conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, on behalf of Temenos. Until this year, the changes in consumer behavior were believed to be the primary impetus for changes in retail banking strategies.

A few years ago, machine learning was virtually unheard of outside the geek press; now it's blasted past cutting-edge to the top of the strategic agenda. In fact, in a recent study by SAP and the Economist Intelligence Unit, "Making the Most of Machine Learning: 5 Lessons from Fast Learners," 68 percent of companies surveyed are using machine learning in some form; among procurement companies, it is about 65 percent. These companies are on a path toward automation. Social psychologist and Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff said, "Everything that can be automated should be automated." Zuboff's viewpoint is particularly true for what we call "knowledge worker" tasks.