While the human mode says NO to machines and robots, the techie inside us craves for hands-on experience to all the latest technology. A few days back when I experienced the Augmented Reality in real, I was awestruck, and my hands itched for more, I wanted to build more use cases for what I experienced, I yearn for what next? And then I stumbled upon Cloud Robotics – another technology that is currently employed by Google in self-driving cars and has a promising future. Cloud Computing has been adopted worldwide, and robotics that existed even in the 90s has now given birth to IoT’s and other intelligent and smart machines. So, could the dual power help Fintech world and bring in Financial inclusion for one and all? Let’s dive in to find out –
What is Cloud Robotics?
Cloud Robotics is using of robotic technology coupled with the power of cloud computing, cloud storage, cloud infrastructure and computation. While the robotic technology helps individuals in automation, the cloud takes up the communication, accessibility, computation and storage part. So essentially, we are trying to reduce the load on the robotic machine and making an interactive user interface, while the processing and storage are offloaded onto the cloud.
How Could Cloud Robotics help Fintech World?
Financial Advisory for long has been the domain of wealthy high class. But with the advent of Robo-Advisors or DIY advisors, the lower income group could now plan their financial portfolio and meet the money targets. Robo-Advisors is a DIY activity where the user is first asked a certain number of questions, the algorithm churns these numbers and presents a financial plan to the customer. He/she would need to assess the risk assigned to each of the investment options and then decide whether to go with it or not. The customer himself does the investment and allocation, and the system/firm is not responsible for it.
Voice assistant payments is a feature that would allow users to make payments by issuing a voice command through a device. As you cook your son’s favorite dish in the kitchen you could issue an order – pay my electricity bill through ABC bank debit card of amount INR 245! That is indeed a reality with voice assistant payments.
The voice assisted payments comes with a boon for people who do not have English as their Primary language. As most of the devices and simulation in the market are English input based, voice assisted devices could let people communicate in their native language with a simple language translator.
How often have you complained about the helpdesk in Banks/firms that’s of no use? Well, being customer facing has its own merits and demerits, but a job where you just have to direct people to go to this counter or that counter could be frustrating for a human. That’s why Robot come into the picture, with a predesignated options one could easily find a way in Banks.
In fact, HDFC Bank recently deployed a robot named Ira to help its customer with general banking queries.
The developing and underdeveloped countries are still struggling to bring every citizen under a bouquet of banking services. One of the key challenges is connecting banking to remote and rural areas, while Agent Banking has lifted and shown a significant change, the last mile delivery is still a challenge. The Robo-Agent could fill in the gap by providing banking services at the doorstep, urgent cash need or quick loans.
How about teaching the business tactics or professional education or financial management to one and all? A Robo-van in your society or your village for a scheduled period. While the Robo-teacher answers all your queries on the best way to transfer funds to your kid or how to get an Aadhaar card or how to use Aadhaar card to make payments, it could also help in simulated based learning.
Cloud Robotics Integrated with Analytics, IoTs, and AI
Well, all the above scenarios do fall under this category, but the explicit usage of technology like Analytics, IoT, and AI would empower Cloud Robotics for Fintech. A possible scenario would be when a carpenter is short of cash, goes to nearby e-corner/ Robo Customer support to get his monthly expenditure and it shows up the visuals, with all allocations and investments. The AI-powered Robo advises him on how he could cancel the use the emergency funds for his needs or pull out some of his investment to meet the urgent cash need.
The race has just started, with people quickly encashing the opportunity presented by technology, it might be a challenge for people to interact with a machine but we are humans, adaptive enough for a change… Would you?