Experts within the University of Oxford's business school believe that as many as two to six million jobs in financial sectors could be lost as a result of improvements in technology. Blockchain and artificial intelligence developments have been proven to allow traditional brick-and-mortar banks to reduce employee counts by up to 90%.
Although it is highly unlikely banks and other financial institutions are going to be laying off a good majority of their staff anytime soon, it is important to understand the benefits and real world uses of emerging technology. Despite the fact that job loss appears to be inevitable, new skilled technical positions will be available and in demand among financial groups.
As a result, the total number of job positions removed will not reach anywhere near the 90% mark. Programmers, digital asset managers, compliance officers, and information security specialists all have bright future outlooks in banking.
Potential uses of artificial intelligence include smarter ATMs with natural language processing, automated trading of investment funds, and removing the requirement to "press 1" for English when calling for assistance.
Blockchain technology is already well under investigation for how it can be used to reduce risk and business expenses. Commercial use of blockchain is being applied to transfer funds in real time securely between institutions without having to rely on higher risk wire transfers that involve a small level of trust between parties.
Currently, Ripple is the leading platform that could help to reduce nearly $1.7 trillion in annual global transaction costs. Unlike a traditional wire transfer, funds are made available near instantaneously and allow extremely large amounts of capital to be moved for pennies on the dollar all whilst leaving verifiable proof of ownership of funds transferred.
Adoption of new standards will take time, but reduced operating costs and the ability to provide better service at the same time will certainly help promote use.