A recent article by a Foreign-Exchange Journalist suggests the ‘Skynet’ of Finance is not too far away.

The article points  to the huge improvements in Artificial Intelligence and the bullishness of Financial Services firms for takeover by technology in their industry. In particular, Transfer/Payments business expect to lose 28% of their business to FinTech in the next 5 years, and Banks expect to lose 24% of their business.

The silver lining to this takeover could however be, the article points out, the greater emphasis on the ‘human touch’ in key customer interfacing areas. For example, a human hand at the wheel to prevent another ‘flash crash’ or a human interpreter of the decisions of an Artificial Intelligence made lending / investment decision.

Whatever happens, we are likely to see more automation, lower costs for the customer, and smarter decision making – albeit in the near term.