With a sudden surge of chatbots and AI algorithms flooding the adviser market, digitising a business has been the next logical step forward for many advisers. Back-end systems are being overhauled and robots are increasingly taking over day-to-day tasks; however, it can also become easy to lose focus and forget that at the end of the day, customers still need that human touch.

It’s easy to assume that all the new generation wants is one tap on a smartphone to complete their transactions, however the human touch should never be undervalued, and the client outcomes should always stand at the centre of any move towards digitisation.

The industry has come a long way over the last few decades when it comes to technology and New Zealand’s financial services sector has largely continued to prioritise human interaction. We have come through the whole revolution of going through one-page faxes to now using bot-type systems to communicate with clients, and it’s really strengthened the business. But that doesn’t mean that we can just let robots and AI run our businesses.

If we look at the generations we’re communicating with, we’re now up to Gen Z – and what do they all do? They work off glass and instantaneous satisfaction. We’re all of that era now where nothing can happen yesterday, but we still want to talk to a human being.

Our industry is embracing that a lot quicker than other industries, but we still need to have a knowledge and understanding of what it means to have a good customer outcome.

Adapted from Insurance Business NZ