With voice-activated services, such as SIRI, Alexa and Google Assistant now a staple in our day-to-day lives, the introduction of this technology to help manage our finances is still subjected to scrutiny. While chatbots and virtual assistants are now well embedded in our everyday banking, do people really feel confident that their data and money are in safe hands? A recent US survey revealed that a huge 86% of consumers prefer humans to chatbots, demonstrating that there is a long way to go until people fully value and trust AI. Research by Maintel shows why companies hesitate before rolling out this technology nationwide. Data protection was cited as a key concern of consumers, with almost half (47%) of them saying that they are unwilling to use a virtual assistant to contact a company out of fear their device could be hacked, giving someone access to their sensitive personal data. This is unsurprising given the high-profile data breaches we've seen in the past by consumer brands using this kind of technology.

Every day, there are new headlines about AI and automation, predicting everything from the end of work to the creation of hyper-productive cyborg employees. The subject generates a lot of debate and a lot of hype, stoked along the way by fears for the future of humans and their jobs. What's often missing in this debate are reliable facts and insights. The reciprocal relationship between work design and employee performance is heavily influenced by the technology we use. But the scope of this collaboration and the opportunity for impact on both performance and our experience of work are still largely unknown.