Next week New York will be abuzz with even more startups, FinTech companies and entrepreneurs than usual.
FinTech Week, hosted by Empire Startups and The Department for International Trade (DIT), brings together hundreds of organizations for a week packed with demos, keynote addresses, and networking events.
We’ll be there. To help attendees, entrepreneurs, and companies get the most out of the jam-packed week, here are four trends sure to dominate conversations.
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Marvin Minsky calls AI a “suitcase term” because it is complex and packed – like a suitcase – with processes, ideas and problems. Machine learning is part of of AI. Machine learning can assist computers with predictions in real-time without the need for human intervention. This week there will be panels on data management strategies to deploy successful AI in financial services. Discussions will focus on whether AI consolidation is for the benefit of the greater good, or if competition is hindered by a few big tech companies.
2. Open Banking
Is Open Banking the “Buzzword of the Year or Banking Revolution?”With financial data becoming standardized and inter-operable, access to the banking infrastructure and analytics is now easier than ever for third parties. Interoperability will make it easier for customers to aggregate their finances and choose services from different providers that best suit their specific and personalized financial needs. But what does all this mean for the end customer? Who has the right to access to their financial data?
3. Blockchain
The “B word” is far from dead. Blockchain has the potential to save companies money and time, and change how companies set up their systems and infrastructure. At FinTech Week, we will see the shift in the conversation away from cryptocurrency and towards a focus on the blockchain. Conversations take a closer look at blockchain projects that could have saved banks millions but stopped at the Proof of Concept stage.
4. Financial inclusion
Companies increasingly want to target the unbanked or underbanked – people who don’t have access to financial products or services. We see this strategy at Cognito, and this trend will certainly not be lacking throughout NYC FinTech Week. Discussions will focus on the entrepreneurial journey around financial inclusion and how to make this strategy of targeting the underbanked work for your company or financial product. Financial services communicators are starting to realize the huge opportunity at the fringe of the banking system.
Join us at NYC FinTech Week to explore these trends and more. If you are attending or thinking of attending NYC FinTech Week next week, pack light because the learnings will put you over the standard baggage weight limit.
Mariah Measey is a senior account manager in New York