Over the last several years, millennials have been upending the consumer market as companies scramble to find the best way to attract the world’s first group of digital natives, a wily lot who thrive on innovation, automation and all of the latest tech gadgets.
As more of these young adults enter the workforce and begin investing in their futures, businesses are quickly realizing they will have to change their approach to appeal to this demographic’s unique set of needs and expectations, which are on course to completely disrupt the status quo. In other words, it can’t just be business as usual with the smartphone generation.
While millennials have been saddled with some unflattering labels in recent years, including "narcissistic," "entitled" and "trophy kids," this tech-savvy bunch has also been hailed for being more progressive and open to new ideas than previous generations.
Millennials value transparency as well as convenience. They essentially demand to have a personalized product or service at their fingertips wherever and whenever they need it, according to research that focuses on how banks can reinvent themselves in the millennial age.
These defining characteristics are what companies need to keep in mind if they want to maintain their competitive edge in this climate of lightning-fast technological change. This has never been truer than for fintech, a field I've watched evolve into being more hands-on, user-friendly and fun, thanks to the advanced automation and AI technologies that have been flooding the IT sphere.
Many fintech companies have seized upon a niche opportunity. They understand that traditional banking and investment avenues are being quickly phased out. In fact, 57% of Americans believe that financial institutions will no longer exist in their present form within the next couple of decades. In fact, a lot of big banks have already deployed mobile apps in an effort to keep up with shifting consumer trends, which are rapidly moving toward the complete digitization of the sector. Fintech is taking this approach a step further by essentially replacing (human) financial advisors with robo-advisors that use big data, machine learning and AI to essentially cherry-pick the best investment opportunities for this new generation of investors.
As the CEO of my own mobile app and web development shop, I’ve worked with quite a few fintech startups over the last decade that understand the importance of targeting the needs of this valuable customer base. I’ve been keeping a keen eye on this sector, pleased to see that the market is filling with investment platforms geared toward my generation. View More
