We've been hearing about how artificial intelligence--machine learning, in particular--will transform the …

In the movie All The President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein meet their informant in a parking garage who tells them: "Follow the money." If you want to know which technologies are hot in banking, you should do the same. The truly "hot" technologies in banking are the ones that financial institutions invest in--not necessarily the ones the pundits talk about. At the end of the past seven years, Cornerstone Advisors has surveyed financial institutions to find out where their technology dollars will go in the coming year. In Cornerstone's What's Going On in Banking 2021 study, the top five technologies for 2021 are: 1) Digital account opening; 2) Application programming interfaces (APIs); 3) Video collaboration; 4) P2P payments; and 5) Cloud computing.

In the movie All The President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein meet their informant in a parking garage who tells them: "Follow the money." If you want to know which technologies are hot in banking, you should do the same. The truly "hot" technologies in banking are the ones that financial institutions invest in--not necessarily the ones the pundits talk about. At the end of the past seven years, Cornerstone Advisors has surveyed financial institutions to find out where their technology dollars will go in the coming year. In Cornerstone's What's Going On in Banking 2021 study, the top five technologies for 2021 are: 1) Digital account opening; 2) Application programming interfaces (APIs); 3) Video collaboration; 4) P2P payments; and 5) Cloud computing.

Companies looking to protect their innovations in artificial intelligence and machine learning face a dilemma. Data and algorithms are essential components to developing products based on these technologies, but it is notoriously difficult to protect them from an intellectual property perspective. There are two possible approaches here. One is to apply for a patent. Another is to seek trade secret protection.

In the movie All The President's Men, Woodward and Bernstein meet their informant in a parking garage and are told: "Follow the money." If you want to know which technologies are hot in banking, you should do the same. The truly "hot" technologies in banking are the ones that financial institutions invest in--which are not always the ones the pundits talk about. At the end of the past six years, Cornerstone Advisors has surveyed financial institutions to find out where their technology dollars will go in the coming year. In the new What's Going On in Banking 2020 study, the top five technologies for 2020 are: 1) Digital account opening; 2) P2P payments; 3) Video collaboration/ marketing; 4) Cloud computing; and 5) Application programming interfaces (APIs). Digital accounting opening (DAO) is the most popular technology for the third year in a row, with a third of banks and credit unions expecting to add new or replacement systems in 2020.

KPMG recently conducted its annual survey of 800 global technology industry leaders, from startups to Fortune 500. The results are the top 3 emerging technology trends that are expected to disrupt business significantly in the next three years. Some 41 percent of respondents identified these three below. Take a closer look at and follow any new developments there, as your business will be disrupted by these technologies sooner than you think. This is the leading trend, with 20 percent of respondents identifying it as driving business transformation.