The world of finance is changing rapidly.
To stay on top of trends and remain competitive in the fintech industry, banks, brokerages, insurers, and other financial service providers are modernizing their traditional tools and processes via cutting-edge digital solutions.
Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), fintech automation tools enable organizations to lower their operational costs, simplify complex systems, minimize human error, and ultimately improve their bottom line. From a business perspective, automation is the future of fintech, and those who are stuck in the old ways of doing things will most certainly fall behind.
But there are many different technologies to choose from, so how do you know which ones are the best fit for your business? And how can you effectively integrate these tools into your current ecosystem to maximize productivity?
The first step is understanding the most common automation solutions, and how they’re being leveraged by successful fintech today. Keep reading to learn more.
General automation trends in the fintech space
Automation can help improve almost every aspect of your organization, from how customers interact with products, to how vendors receive payments, to how information is communicated between teams.
When it comes to day-to-day operations, here are the main areas where workflow automation tools are making a big impact.
Human resources (HR): Key HR processes—such as recruiting job candidates, conducting background checks, training new employees, evaluating work performance, updating company policies, and maintaining legal compliance—can all be streamlined via automation. Three of the most popular HR automation tools in the financial services space are Cflow, 15Five, and Workday
Customer service: With chatbots and other customer service automation software, such as Zendesk and Fresh Desk, fintech companies can offer a smoother customer experience—while also saving time and money. These tools are designed to handle repetitive tasks, like responding to basic inquiries and creating customer support tickets.
Mobile: Through secure mobile channels, a financial institution can support remote-work capabilities and enhance communication between its staff, customers, and third-party service providers.
Fintech process automation tools and strategies
Implementing the right process automation tools and strategies requires a deep understanding of your business goals and requirements. While some organizations only need to automate one or two tasks, others will call for a complete reconfiguration of mission-critical operations.
Here are some of the most common automation tools leveraged by fintech companies today:
Robotic process automation (RPA): In fintech, RPA tools are most commonly used to extract data from legacy systems, so that employees don’t have to do so manually. Keep in mind that if your platform’s UI regularly changes, RPA may not be the best fit.
Integration platform as a service (iPaaS): iPaaS solutions are used by fintech IT departments to automate tasks around the building, testing, launching, and managing of integrations between various software applications. They are paid for on a subscription basis and require on-premise deployment.
Integration software as a service (iSaaS): Like iPaaS, iSaaS is offered as a subscription service, but doesn’t come with the same level of security. These solutions are used to automate basic tasks like directing emails to a spreadsheet or Slack channel.
Bots: With AI and ML technology, bots can be trained to perform tasks like responding to basic customer requests, setting up appointments for sales reps, sending important notifications to users, and so on.
Enterprise automation: These solutions come with user-friendly interfaces that help IT and non-IT personnel automate workflows—from data processing to application integration—between separate databases, apps, and microservices.
Use cases for automation in fintech
Automation can be leveraged to lower costs, improve productivity, and reduce human error around various business operations.
Here are a few popular examples of how workflow automation tools add value in the fintech space:
Speeding up the loan approval process: The approval process for loans and credit cards used to be several weeks. Now, because of intelligent automation technology, it can be completed in a matter of minutes. ML algorithms are trained to capture and analyze an applicant’s FICO score, annual income, and other relevant data—so that lenders can quickly and easily assess the risk, make a decision, and move on.
Reducing fraud: Programmed to identify suspicious user patterns and behaviors, today’s AI- and ML-based tools detect fraud faster and more effectively than any human. Automation tools can also speed up the identity verification process via two-step authentication and other methods—so the customer experience never gets disrupted unless an actual fraud risk is present.
Integrating data from disparate sources: Automation tools enable fintech companies to eliminate manual data entry, which is highly inefficient to begin with. Critical business data from CRM, payroll, eCommerce and other third-party solutions can be centralized in an ERP system, without the risk of human error.
Maintaining industry compliance: By identifying red flags early through automation, organizations can protect customer data and avoid breaching financial industry regulations, which often result in expensive fines and other consequences.
Implementing automation tools for your fintech business
From streamlining repetitive tasks, to preventing fraud, to enhancing the client experience, automation technology will help modernize your financial services company as it competes in the digital age.
But integrating the right tools and processes into your business’ infrastructure requires significant time, resources, and technical expertise. That’s where Codal comes in. Our award-winning team has over a decade of experience digitally transforming financial institutions, and we’re always up for a new challenge.
Based on the goals and requirements of your organization, our team will identify the best process automation solutions, then plan and execute an implementation strategy that aligns with your timeline and budget.
