By LAUREN RUEF

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intech isn’t a trend, and now more than ever, businesses are starting to believe it. Governmental regulatory bodies like The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granting Fintech a special charter to dodge regulatory barriers could fundamentally change everything about the future of finance. While many welcome this change with open arms, others fear the pace of adoption in an industry that’s slow to give bank customers what they want—more access to their money and a greater sense of personalization in the user experience. These customer expectations are part of raising the bar. Fintech—much more than a buzzword—is doing more than disrupting. Fintech is building partnerships with banks to deliver the technology pipeline needed to engage a generation of Millennials hungry for on-demand, personalized services. According to Deloitte, Millennials will be the prevailing global workforce by 2025, accounting for 75 percent of it in total. Automation on a mass scale has paved the way forward. Let’s look at a few ways automation is tearing down barriers to doing business.

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Increased competition: Automation lowers barriers for new entrants into the market.

The McKinsey Global Institute released a study in January of 2017, assessing the impact of automation on a global scale. The research firm conveyed that while automation might be a slow-building wave, it is a far-reaching one for individuals doing fixed tasks in predictable environments. The study implicated jobs from low-skilled factory labor to white-collar professionals like doctors and engineers are under the lens of reorganization due to automation. The report says: “The effects of automation might be slow at a macro level, within entire sectors or economies, for example, but they could be quite fast at a micro level, for individual workers whose activities are automated or for companies whose industries are disrupted by competitors using automation.” This means it’s going to be much easier for the small fish to enter the same streams that the big fish have been running in for some time. We’re already seeing it with small e-commerce retailers competing with big box department stores like Macys or Nordstrom for sales. This kind of movement will only increase with the rapid expansion of automation solutions enabling businesses to focus on their core competencies with laser-like precision.

Markets free of legacy technology have an unparalleled advantage.

Riding the front of the automation wave are countries and industries that lack the burden of legacy technology. There’s no sharper advantage than being legacy-free, and many emerging international markets are picking up that edge. BRIC is an acronym for the emerging international markets showing the most promise for economic development and influence in the twenty-first century. The phrase was coined by Jim O’Neil of AB | July - August 2017 15