5 Can’t-Miss Insight Circle Predictions for 2021 and Beyond

Good news as we roll into 2021: there are very exciting things on the horizon, particularly at the intersection of society, technology, and business.

2020 was the inaugural year for our Insight Circle influencer series and it was met with great fanfare from leaders in the international IT and finance communities. We’ve combed through this year’s posts and present a series of predictions about our collective future that you simply can’t miss.

The humanity of technology

Brett King

Futurist, author, speaker, radio show host and Founder and Executive Chairman of Moven, Brett King is many things (besides being one of the top visionaries in digital banking). He was our first Insight Circle influencer and headlined a 3-part series for Clickatell. He is hopeful when speaking about how we can maintain our humanity and caring for each other as technology keeps progressing, pushing the boundaries between reality and fantasy.

“We’re getting to a point soon where things like homelessness simply won’t exist because the cost of mitigating the issue will be lower than the cost of leaving someone on the street. For example, we will reach a point where we can 3D print a small home or apartment for the cost of $3,000 or $4,000 in 24 hours, while the average cost to society of having a person be homeless in, say, San Francisco in terms of extended government services, policing and health care can average $35,000 to $45,000 a year.”

Read the full blog post here.

Future transformations in consumer experience

Steve Klebe

Steve Klebe, Business Development at Google Pay, thinks big changes are coming in the next five years when it comes to payments and the customer experience, including what he calls the “Uberization of Payments.”

“I do think that more and more payments will go digital. With 5G, the experience of transacting digitally is going to blow people’s minds… Today when you step out of the Uber, you have to push a few buttons and decide what tip you want to give, etc. I would envision soon that your phone will verbally ask you how much you would like to tip Jane the Uber driver for that ride, for example.”

Steve continued: “Another change will be in NFC (Near Field Communication) payments… I think in the next five years we will quickly go from contactless payments in the low single digits to probably the mid-double digits. I think we will see 35% to 50% or 60% of all payments be contactless here in the US in the next three to five years, from maybe 2% or 3% now.”

Read the full blog post here.

Handing consumers the keys to their data

Sanjib Kalita

Sanjib Kalita is co-founder and CEO of Guppy.ai and CMO at Money 20/20. We all know that companies have data about us as consumers without us having any control. Sanjib Kalita, co-founder and CEO of Guppy.ai and CMO at Money 20/20, has a unique solution that could truly be win-win.

“In the current credit bureau system, the bureaus have data about us as consumers and they have data from our banks and financial institutions. It’s theoretically our data, but the control, monetization and marketing of it is done by third parties which we don’t have any control over.”

His solution? “Let’s say, for example, you have a credit card account with JPMorgan Chase. You could get a message notifying you of new data from Chase or a related company and you can go and verify this data... Whenever a third party purchases this data, the revenue is split between the consumer and the bank so there’s an economic incentive for verifying your data. And on the third-party side, they know the data has been verified by all parties.”

Read the full blog post here.

Living longer—and stronger

Dr. Damian Tan

Damian Tan has excellent news for you: the proverbial fountain of youth is no fiction! As co-founder, Partner, and Managing Director of Vickers Venture Partners, he’s got his finger on the pulse of some of today’s most groundbreaking technologies and how they will impact our ability to a live a lot better—and a lot longer.

“Around the year 1860, the average lifespan was between 40 to 50 years, and poverty was about 91% of the population. In 2020, average lifespans in many countries have doubled to 80 to 90 years and poverty is 9% of the world population. By the year 2099, lifespans will easily surpass 100 and may even reach 160 years or more. Poverty will be insignificant, and we will remain healthy and productive (healthspan) for almost our entire lifespan.  We will overcome many of the current diseases plaguing us today like cancer and Alzheimer’s. Future medicine will even regenerate the human body, reversing the effects of aging!”

Read the full blog post here

The importance of connection in the customer experience

Barbara Gray

Accelerating changes in societal, technological, and economic forces are coming together and creating massive change in financial services and other industries. Leading equity analyst and author Barbara Gray shares her thoughts on why humanity is pivotal—and why creating deep psychological attachments with your customers through a real social mission is imperative. This post is the second in a 3-part series.

“What’s happened over the last decade in the age of Amazon is that companies trying to compete only at that level [on price, convenience, and variety of choice] are getting destroyed. They have to move up one level to the emotional layer and build long term relationships with customers and create experiences.

The peak of the customer capital side of the value pyramid is what I call the soul or psychological level. It’s about creating a psychological attachment with your customers because you have a real social mission. Examples of these social missions include: 1) creating community, such as lululemon and Starbucks (by creating ‘third places’), and 2) sustainability, for example, Whole Foods and Chipotle.”

Read the full blog post here.

Curious to see more? Want to dive in deeper with the great minds and big ideas in our Insight Circle Series?

Read all of our Insight Circle articles and learn more about the new era of digital banking.