The real disruption in financial services won’t be about software or data itself; it will be about data analytics and intelligence.
That’s the upshot from Anil Arora, CEO of Envestnet Yodlee.
“It’s about what you are doing with your data, not what kind of data or software you have,” he said at the DataDisrupt conference this morning. “We are using data analytics to build smart, intelligent, automated applications, which can be chat-driven or voice-driven, and provide advisors with necessary analytics tools.”
One application of the company’s data-driven analytics software is in digital wealth management, according to Arora. For this application, however, a human advisor is key.
“Men plus machines will be more valuable than men or machines on their own,” he explained. “And the reason for that is because money is emotional; it’s not like an Uber ride, when you are just going from one location to the other, and it can be fully automated.” There are life events, aspirations, and desires involved in money management, Arora said, which require not just real-time data tracking, but also an actual human being available at all times.
Arora showcased a sample chat-based app, which, after starting off with automated questions and investment suggestions, eventually schedules an appointment for the user with a human advisor.
Check out the demo: