In only the next five years McKinsey is expecting that artificial intelligence (AI) will take over 10 – 25% of all jobs available in the banking sector. More than once you might have heard about the future prospect of robots taking over millions of jobs that previously needed human intelligence (McKinsey&Company, 2017). The question that keeps arising is what the impact will be on our jobs.
A Dutch bank, Rabobank, has recently introduced a robot to train bank employees in how to deal with ‘bad-news’ conversations. With the general idea in mind that robots will take over our jobs, the bank introduced robot to show the employees that robots can also have positive effect. Before, employees would follow a training to learn how to best communicate with the customer. If they would have to deliver ‘bad-news’ by for example telling clients a loan will no longer be extended, employees would give preference to practice such a conversation.
From here on it is only a matter of time before the robot can be put to work in other areas of the bank. Take for example people applying for a mortgage, only too often these people will get home and realize they have forgotten to ask a certain question. A robot can be programmed to point out any questions that clients might have forgotten to ask. The robot will know what to suggest based on many other mortgage application conversations (Winkel, 2018).
Although AI is gaining ground fast, I believe that the opportunity in our daily jobs is bigger than the threat. In every sector, we should think about how AI can help employees in their daily tasks and routines. However, do we as students already need to take these possible changes into account? Do we need to run to our fellow accounting students and discuss whether or not they should change studies while they can? Technology is changing the field game, but how quickly do we respond?
– McKinsey&Company. (2017). How cognitive technologies are transforming capital markets. Retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/cognitive-technologies-in-capital-markets
– Winkel, R. (2018, September 18). Bankpersoneel krijgt goedgemutste robot als collega. fd.
