Artificial intelligence and Blockchain technology will radically alter the financial-services industry in coming years, with thousands of jobs due to become obsolete. Bankers will have to get IT-savvy quickly.
Even if bitcoin and Blockchain remain exotic in many ways, they aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon. Quite to the contrary. They will be part of a digital revolution that will change countless activities in the banking industry forever, Philipp Sandner told «Handelsblatt» (in German) in an interview.
Sandner is professor for digital economy and micro-economic sciences. He is leading the Blockchain Center, founded at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management in February.
One-Way Only
«This will have negative consequences for employees in the administrative departments,» Sandner said. «In finance, many jobs are under threat, because many procedures can be replaced through IT. And Blockchain helps to cut costs and prices.»
The development is being boosted by trends toward automatization, big data and artificial intelligence. In the transformation of the industry, jobs will disappear and others be created, but the people required will need a strong penchant for IT.
«There won’t be any jobs in finance without IT knowledge required. I’m telling my students that whoever wants to work in the industry in future needs to acquire IT knowledge today. Even the traditional micro-economic sciences are being digitized,» Sandner said.
Bankers With IT Expertise
Tomorrow’s banker will know a lot about the digital world, how to read a manual and how IT systems function. The knowledge will become crucial even in marketing, in data analysis and in the distribution. «Data analysis and numbers-based online-marketing is also a form of IT.»
Banks, insurers and stock exchanges won’t become superfluous. «We need them: to keep assets, for the financing of real estate, pension provision and corporate transactions. But I believe that in 20 years’ time, those banks which today are working very hard on digitization will be market leaders.»
Robo-Advisers: Bound for Success
Traditional financial companies are being protected by regulation. But technology isn’t going to be stopped. Sandner recognizes that the rich won’t yet have their all their assets managed by a robo-adviser, but certainly smaller sums.
«But the question is, whether it will stay that way or if larger amounts won’t be invested digitally at some point. I think it may possibly take another twenty years,» Sandner said.
