Banks are transforming their organizations with digital technologies. Forces such as emerging technology, fintechs, changing customer behavior, and the decomposition of the banking industry are influencing banking technology investment trends. The pandemic has further accelerated this change and introduced a greater focus on cost reduction. To learn how banks are planning to prioritize their technology investments in 2021, Martha Bennett and I interviewed and surveyed more than two dozen banking business and technology decision-makers and solutions partners. We focused on their interests and the extent of planned investments in 20 different technologies. What did we learn? For starters:

  • Interest in AI, APIs, basic chatbots, microservices, analytics, and robotic process automation remains high. Investment levels were typically high prior to the pandemic, but COVID-19 made a dent in some of those plans.
  • Emerging technologies such as augmented reality, distributed ledger (aka blockchain), and progressive web apps face varying individual hurdles. Some of these technologies can create value for banks and their customers today, but technology teams should avoid using emerging tech that cannot deliver more value than established technologies at this point.
  • There’s plenty of shiny tech poised to distract banks in the coming year. Gamification is one, quantum computing another; then there’s also virtual reality, which is only applicable to a few areas of banking.

Want to learn everything that made our “hot,” “hype,” and “on the radar” lists for 2021? Check our latest report, “The Top Emerging Technologies In Banking In 2021” (subscription required). Got a question after reading this? Click here to book an inquiry.