I recently read an article (http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/21/next-generation-mobile-banking-apps-data-sharing-warning) about the new wave of mobile banking.  Banks want to become a ‘lifestyle partner’ rather than just an institution taking care of your money. Two topics raised my eyebrows:

Automated spending decisions

Your bank knows way more about you than you think. They see your bills, your spending and how much you pay compared to your peers. The article talks about the possibility your bank could, for example, switch your cable provider based on the data which you have in your account.  It is odd to me to think that my bank would use this information without my permission. These features make sense when they provide me with options to select, rather than imposing. I also find it really useful that my GPS enabled phone knows where I am and by sending me a push message, it can inform me about the latest exchange rate between my home currency and the currency of my current location. There is the opportunity to take this further and automatically use location data. How would customers react to a feature which offers a deal for cheaper sun cream when the customer is close to the seaside? Is this a useful feature or maybe one step too close to meddling in our private lives?

Voice-Assisted Banking (VAB)

A Voice-Assistant in your mobile app can be useful, quick and efficient. Voice control enables hands-free banking as an alternative to banking via a touch screen. The Voice-Assistant uses natural language technology to answer questions, find information, and connect you with various banking services. All you need to do is specify your needs, and use your voice instead of typing. This will open a whole new world not just for users who don’t like to write, but also for customers who are blind or visually impaired.

Kasisto, a company developing virtual assistant solutions for mobile and tablet, plans two commercial product releases this year for Voice-Assisted Banking. VAB is also a hot topic for Nuance Technologies, Ask Ziggy and Interactions. I can imagine this being a major part in the new trend in mobile banking, building on the great success of Apple’s Siri .

You can find some interesting videos on this topic here:

http://bankinnovation.net/2015/04/whos-who-in-voice-assisted-banking-video/

How big a boom will this trend create? I am curious now about opinions, would you use such an option? Would you feel yourself comfortable by sending money via a voice-assistant?

Overall it will be interesting to see the first pioneers regarding the above topics especially in the viewpoint of to set the border between private life and efficient banking analytics what would make our life easier. What do you think, how deeply will we integrate Artificial Intelligence to our banking habits?