We have a duty not to bury our heads in the sand or take the view that we will be retired before AI really takes hold.
Paul Hunt(pictured)is a marketing consultant
You could be forgiven for thinking that nothing else was going on in the world, as Brexit negotiations dominate the headlines. However, there was an interesting story last week about Pepper, who became the first robot to appear at a UK parliamentary meeting, talking to MPs about the future of artificial intelligence in education.
The Education Committee is looking at the impact technologies such as AI and robotics will have on education and Pepper stated to MPs that "Robots will have an important role to play - but we will always need the soft skills that are unique to humans to sense, make and drive value from technology."
This comment rings true when we start to look at how AI could make a significant impact in our sector, as undoubtedly there are many tasks and functions that could be tackled by AI to improve the customer experience, but the soft skills needed to provide advice will still be a vital part of the overall service.
An example of AI in action is something that Google have demonstrated and they have used a scenario of booking a hair appointment (Google's AI Assistant Can Now Make Real Phone Calls). It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to see how such technology could help our sector immediately.
In fact at a recent industry conference attended by senior people from banks and building societies, Mark Lusted, the MD of the digital agency Dock9, gave many examples of where AI could be applied now and showed that it’s already being used in other countries for financial services including mortgages.
For all of us in this sector, we have a duty not to bury our heads in the sand or take the view that we will be retired before AI really takes hold, as the customer will benefit from the adoption of this technology and only by trying and testing will we understand the true benefits it could bring.
I’ll leave you with a few recent AI and mortgage related stories to read and digest below, as if you didn’t believe that it’s coming soon, these may help change your mind.
