People at the Heart of Technological Innovation

Blockchain, Fintech, Regtech, Suptech… these terms describe the most commonly used innovations and new technologies in the financial sector. The recent acceleration of progress in the digital field and the necessity for users to gain technological agility make this a priority issue, particularly in the banking industry. Making these issues part of a strategy and a long-term vision is key.
The OECD’s Oslo Manual explains that innovation refers to a product, process, or service that provides a company with new knowledge, a change involving a high degree of novelty, or a substantial improvement potentially leading to a breakthrough. Companies have always needed to innovate. The recent acceleration of progress in the digital field and the necessity for users to gain technological agility make this a priority issue, particularly in the banking industry. Human behaviour must evolve to adapt to this new paradigm, where technology is now an integral part of everyday life.

An example of this is the success of smartphones, which have a penetration rate of nearly 80% in France and 35% worldwide1. This success relies on sophisticated mobile applications that use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to make them easier to adopt for as many people as possible. Another example is major e-commerce sites, which analyse each of our clicks to recommend the best purchase at the best time. These use machine learning solutions to constantly improve their purchase suggestions. A final example is the self-driving vehicle, which have appeared in the United States, and more recently in Luxembourg, on a trial basis. These vehicles are also symbolic of this trend.

Laurent Marochini