With new technologies and innovations coming on the scene almost daily, community financial institutions (FIs) need to consider all the ways consumers of the very near future will want to bank. Emerging technologies like voice-activated personal assistants (such asAmazon Echo) could potentially have major impact on how people digitally manage their finances.
Hands-free functionality could be the way of the future. Cars and devices like Amazon Echo already allow consumers to perform activities without their hands, such as making purchases, checking the weather and answering phone calls. Even mobile devices are putting some hands-free functionality in place with “Hey Google” and voice-activated Siri access.
The next step for FIs may be to allow consumers to get financial information in the same way—hands-free.
Of course, as the number of devices and channels to access them continues growing, authentication methodologies will need to be tailored accordingly. While fingerprint authentication makes sense today, because consumers are largely holding their devices, it may not be the best option to correspond with future usage habits. With hands-free, voice authentication seems to make sense and may be the next biometric authentication form utilized.
