Technological Evolution in Business & Finance and the Future

Considering all the buzz surrounding technology lately and its developments, specifically since the start of this century is exciting on multiple levels. Advancements in tech continue to impact the global economy and the way we do business and the impact, I might add, has been increasing exponentially. In fact, that effect is, part understandably and part unknowingly, so overwhelming that we see a consistent dialogue about how to best manage this development as it reaches an unprecedented level of pace scale.

It also makes sense to understand the magnitude and the pace of these developments in order to position ourselves to maximize the rewards from it. As the basic investment analysis methodology suggests, we must study the past trends to predict future performance, it only makes sense to analyze the recent technological evolution in financial industry to get a glimpse into the future and how technological advancement might shape it up.

Let’s briefly look at several of the major ways tech has in the recent past made its way into morphing the industry for good.

Mobile banking
The impact that mobile phones have had on every aspect of our lives is remarkable and has certainly exceeded our expectations. As the number of cell phone users increased, so did the accessibility to the financial and banking services. The services grew in both the usage and the utility offered by them

Online trading
Similar to mobile banking, online trading is an element that is now taken for granted. What the comparison between its rampant presence now and when there was none (about 25 years) depicts is unbelievable.

Online payment systems
With the advent of PayPal back in 1998, the online payment mechanism was changed forever. Firstly, making safer payments online was actually made possible and then using this service was essentially made inevitable. The spread of online business as a whole only made payments systems like PayPal more of a necessity. Today, we have numerous other online money exchange platforms as the industry shows no signs of innovation blocks.

Just looking at these very basic innovations in financial services should help us clear the fog caused by innumerable contradicting viewpoints around the impact technology is going to have on business as a whole. How these once unimaginable and unheard of services are now not only considered as natural but also quite mundane as their importance is somewhat undermined due to the obvious role that these services play.

It’s important to note that these innovations and most others similar to these happened around the beginning of this century. As we are experiencing yet another period of massive technological advancement, we are faced with several major potential technological breakthroughs such as block chain, artificial intelligence, machine learning etc.

A juxtaposition of these two periods (first one being the initiation of computer/internet revolution and the second one, an extension of it) of technological breakthroughs gives us a couple of points to consider. (1) The magnitude of the former was all-encompassing and here we are, going through a period that could result in such, or potentially even greater, scale of magnitude. (2) The nature of both these phases is rooted in the same fundamentals i.e., using the computing power to the maximum benefit of the way we do business.

In the light of this transformational period, what appears to be certain is that the marketplace is not going to be the same in a decade’s time. What is certain is that the business is going to be faster, automated, transparent and far easier to experience in both B2B and B2C contexts. Exciting times lie ahead and to maximize the gains, every aspect of the business and economy that could potentially benefit from these next generation innovations must be understood comprehensively, both on the institutional and individual level.

I'll try to narrow down and expound any one of these areas that would go through massive change in the coming posts.