Chris Ridd CEO of MP, Steph Hinds, Head Ninja at Growthwise, and Daniel Tramontana, GM of BGL pictured at BGL RegTech17 event in Melbourne
For the past three weeks I’ve been on the road with BGL on their national RegTech Conference and last week we sadly concluded the series with the Melbourne leg of what has been a fantastic roadshow.
When I spoke with BGL CEO, Ron Lesh, two months ago about getting involved in this event as a keynote speaker I was asked to talk about change management; so I reflected on how the advice industry (both accounting and personal wealth) have been enormously impacted by change. Having some fun with this topic, I introduced the audience to a website called ‘Will Robots Take My Job’. Whilst not something that is designed to be taken too seriously, the website is actually based on some credible research undertaken by Oxford University. If you haven’t seen this, check it out here. I referred to this site in the context of professions that were likely to be on the decline in future due to technology. I told the story of my 16 year old son Jamie who is currently considering his career options as a Year 10 student. His choices are 1) rock ’n’ roll drummer, 2) AFL footballer or 3) accountant. Needless to say I had some fun covering this subject and the website provided some interesting insights into each of these career options as I took the audience through the assessment of each. Turns out that accountants are indeed under a great deal of threat from machines… but robots can’t replace rock stars. The conclusion, and in the words of the great man Neil Young, rock ’n’ roll will never die!!
Chris Ridd addressing the conference on change management
Changing tack, I also spoke about some of the emerging technology trends that are impacting accountants and advisors, and while they may be disruptive, many of these represent great opportunities for the advice industry.
I spoke about how data, whether you are a consumer or a business, is becoming critically important in really understanding where a client is at with their finances. At myprosperity, we have built a platform that is built on data. The proliferation of APIs, data feeds and the cloud have made it possible to wire up the financial world of a personal wealth client so they can have a their entire financial world in one place. Whether desktop or mobile phone, their personal wealth can be available in real time; that is a huge benefit to the advisor who has always struggled with this issue.
Furthermore, aggregating data from multiple data sources adds a valuable dimension to this. Rather than just getting transactional data from your bank, we can now take that data to understand, for example, what I owe against a property. Bringing in real time data from RP Data and modelling repayment plans based on live banking data, I can now get a real time position on my Loan to Value (LVR) ratio and over time understand my borrowing power. This is just one example of how I can not only be engaged with my finances, but also in control of them by combining data from multiple sources to make informed decisions.
Accountants and advisors are probably going to be safe for a while to come. Robots and machines should ultimately be our servants supporting many of those mundane tasks such as predictive coding, auditing, fraud detection, and so on.
On the roadshow I also spoke about trends in real time data analytics with powerful new platforms like Microsoft’s Power BI, as well as developments in machine learning and AI. Like any new concept in technology, it is often accompanied by a great deal of hype and questionable predictions. Some say AI and machine learning technology will ultimately replace the need for an accountant or advisor. I certainly don’t subscribe to this view. In actual fact, machine learning is only possible when data or transactions occur in high frequency and in high volume. Machines are great at understanding patterns based on these factors, but the human brain is far superior at problem solving and making decisions based on limited information. That’s the domain of advisors.
My conclusion is that accountants and advisors are probably going to be safe for a while to come. Robots and machines should ultimately be our servants supporting many of those mundane tasks such as predictive coding, auditing, fraud detection, and so on. Certainly, in my son Jamie’s case, if he decides to pursue drumming or AFL as a career, it is unlikely that he’ll be confronted by a robot who wants to challenge him for those roles. Likewise, if he decides to become an accountant I feel confident that he’ll be OK and more than likely he will have robots working for him.
Cheers
Chris