As we gaze into the crystal ball, it’s clear to see that digital business models are set to continue disrupting the banking, finance and superannuation sectors in 2023 and beyond.
Digitalisation is leading the way in terms of customer behavioural changes, forcing traditional financial service operations to evolve and shift their focus to embracing digital transformation.
It’s also likely that we will see many banks mature into pure technology businesses; offering digital solutions after utilising their distribution channels, combined with their large customer bases.
But what other digital banking, finance and superannuation trends should we expect to see in 2023?
Principal Consultant & Director at 9 Yards, Shannon Slater, attended the APAC Gartner IT Symposium on the Gold Coast in September 2022, where the conversation aligned with our own foresight. Here’s what we see shaping the next 12 months:
Focusing on tech sustainability
The most notable trend for 2023 set to dominate business headlines is environmental sustainability. Gartner’s survey on top CEO strategic priorities found environment and social changes to be in the top 3 priorities for investors, even outperforming revenue and profit. Because of this, we’re likely to see executives invest quite heavily in more innovative solutions in 2023 to meet ESG goals.
At the Gartner IT Symposium, a discussion on this topic highlighted the urgency and severity around instant action. An interview conducted by Gartner expert Mark Raskino, together with Adam Banks, former CIO and CDO of A.P. Moller Maersk, and Dan Evans, CIO of Rio Tinto, revealed that the 16 biggest ships from Maersk have more emissions than the same amount of carbon generated from all the cars in the world. However, Maersk has initiated a roadmap to deliver net-zero by 2040 to offset these contributions.
The discussion concluded that using technology can facilitate a win-win outcome in this scenario – efficiencies resulting in reduced fuel consumption (and a cost savings of $6b), as well as benefits to the environment of 30% less emissions.
Businesses must adopt a new sustainable technology framework to boost the energy and material efficiencies surrounding IT services. The aim is to enable sustainability for enterprises through the use of technologies like analytics, renewable energy, AI, and traceability, helping business leaders reach sustainability business objectives.
Improving employee experiences
New approaches to leadership are on the cards in 2023. This is largely due to the evolving digital world that is quickly facilitating change between employers and their employees. A 2022 Gartner survey of 860 HR leaders found that 47% of respondents consider employee experience a top organisational priority. Meanwhile, Gartner also found that only 13% of employees are fully satisfied with their experience.
Mark Whittle, Vice President of Advisory in the Gartner HR practice said: “Rising inflation, scarce expensive talent, and global supply constraints represent a new combination of variables for HR leaders to understand as they consider their 2023 strategies.”
The Gartner Symposium revealed that CEOs and companies are putting employee experience in the centre of design thinking for all change, technology selection, and capability modernisation initiatives.
According to an analysis from Frances Karamouzis on the future of employee experience: “By 2025, labour volatility will cause 40% of organisations to report a material business loss forcing a shift in talent strategy from acquisition to resilience.”
Gartner VP Analyst, Rita Sallam added “By 2025, employee value metrics like well-being, burnout and brand satisfaction will override ROI evaluations in 30% of successful growth investment decisions.”
In the coming years, we are likely to see significant business investment to improve employee experiences; particularly in relation to workplace redesign, onboarding and digitalising HR. There will also be a greater focus on improving employees’ perceptions around how they feel about their workplace experience, driving and supporting positive company cultures.
Personalising digital customer experiences
Digital experiences across the banking, finance and superannuation industries are likely to become more human in 2023. Despite the general economic uncertainty, more than 65% of companies say they are increasing CX spending in 2023, by an average of 24%.
Customers are now prioritising digital solutions when selecting a financial provider. This isn’t only due to a preference of viewing which products are on offer, but also because they favour digital channels over traditional ones. As a result, it’s essential to provide an engaging digital customer experience.
In the banking industry, consumers now expect hyper-personalised digital interactions. This benefits the consumer because it is a highly relevant level of service that creates loyalty by recognising past interactions and predicting future needs. This level of personalisation can lead to increased sales and engagement, resulting in a revenue boost.
Research by Alkami found that only about a quarter of survey respondents reported using hyper-personalisation to attain a competitive advantage, while two-thirds said they did not. Often, the inability to deliver contextual communication is due to the lack of data and analytic capabilities to drive strategies.
“As banks strive to take advantage of hyper-personalisation, concepts like user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) must remain at the forefront,” said Alkami.
Keeping data secure
Cyber and data security is more important now than ever before. With threats and risks always continuing to evolve, organisations are set to increase their focus on data security, especially with instances of high-level data breaches skyrocketing in 2022.
Data is a concern to all, especially those at an executive level. Because of this, data compliance and security will become a top business priority in 2023. Successful data security isn’t only the responsibility of the IT department; rather, an entire organisation must raise awareness and recognise the importance of security frameworks and protocols to build a ‘cyber-safe’ culture.
IBM’s 2022 Cost of a Data Breach report found that involvement by the board is a top 10 mitigating cost factor for data breaches, signifying how essential organisation-wide acceptance and involvement is for minimising losses and improving response capabilities.
Get ahead in 2023
If your organisation needs assistance with building a sustainability strategy, or help crafting better digital customer experiences, reach out to the team at 9Yards for expert advice.
